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A workflow change
I’ve not used Photoshop to produce a complete mockup for a long time. I’ve been using an approach which is now simply defined as “designing in the browser”, although for a long time I had no idea anyone else was working in this way as I’ve been doing it instinctively for the past 3-4 years.
I’ve always just found it easier to cut individual UI elements in Photoshop and pull them together into a coherent interface with HTML and CSS. However, lately, I’ve really been enjoying pushing pixels and forming complete interfaces in Photoshop again, then producing the build after a UI mockup is fully formed.
People seem to be adopting the approach of HTML/CSS based prototypes now as we have strong CSS support in the browser, aesthetic elements such as Drop Shadows and Gradients can be achieved with a single line of code. But I see this as an argument to revert back to a more heavy use of graphics editors such as Photoshop or Fireworks.
Why? This sounds crazy, no? Well to me, the biggest advantage of designing with technology was that I was always working within what was achievable with that technology. But my designs ended up, as countless people have said, lacking any real originality. When you’re working with code snippets, your design becomes equally pattern driven. You have a metric for measuring efficiency, lines of code… Graphic editors aren’t so linear, you can only measure efficiency on the quality of your output, not the number of lines of code you’ve written.
Anyway, my real point is that we have all these great new additions to CSS3 and HTML5 and everyone agrees we should be adopting them, in a progressive manner. But the way I see this is, rather than making it more practical to be designing in the browser, it actually makes designing in a graphical environment more practical as you know with a certain degree of certainty that giving this UI component a drop shadow, gradient or whatever, isn’t going to cause a real headache on implementation… So you can unleash the full extent of your aesthetic whims and create something which purely focuses on being beautiful and great, not “technologically feasible” or “easily achievable”.
That’s just my 2 pence worth anyway, this is just a preference I’ve noticed emerging in my own process over the past few weeks. It may well fade again, we shall see!
Who am I? I’m a father, digital product designer and developer, building businesses that follow the small giants philosophy.
I’m director of Abstraktion, a small studio providing unprecedented web application design and development.
I’m currently building Podchains, a version control application for Video Projects.
I’m strategic director at Bex Media, a video production company specialising in web enhanced media. We also stream live events and performances.
Above all else, I have the cutest daughter in the world!
My own thoughts and content will be posted under the blog blog tag.
