[Caroline VFX]

Hi,

I'm working as a web developer for nuvfx and concentrating my effort on the website backend using rails and jquery.
I was wondering if we could try a slightly newer approach to the design problem: since the website will be quite interactive and articulated I'm afraid that revolving around a photoshop mockup wouldn't be in the best interest of the whole production workflow.

My suggestion would require me to send you html mockups of the pages generated by the server. Starting from such pages your designers can turn them into a graphic mockup just by using CSS3 and webkit-specific styling techniques and combining them with graphic elements so that the result can be displayed directly in the browser as a real webpage instead of leveraging photoshop's image editing capabilities on a blank canvas of pixels.
For simplicity's sake they will work using only webkit rendering (Safari or Chrome) as a reference, and cross-browser compatibility will be somebody else's problem.

They will be able to change the html structure if needed -provided that such changes will be tracked- and to create a css file and all the graphical sprites they deem necessary.
The basic typography and layout will be difined building on top of the blueprint css framework that irons out some of the cross browser compatibility bugs and enforces sensible layout and typography.

Article on this kind of workflow:
http://24ways.org/20...ockup-in-markup


I'd love to hear from you or your designers on this kind of workflow and about your objections/concerns.

We are also interested on what impact would it have on price and development time considering that this workflow allows your team to work on all the pages at once instead of replicating design changes on 10-12 static mockups and you won't be concerned with cross-browser compatibility and putting the site live.

Kind Regards,

Caroline

[BlueDreamer]

Welcome to WDF!

I've always done HTML mockups ever since I first started building sites last century. Occasionally I'll do a graphic mockup when it suits but that's rare.

The whole point of this method is to allow the web designer to create the framework of the site with all the key elements in place (logo, nav, subnav, content etc). This allows user interaction to be designed and tested during the design stage so any issue can be solved. Additionally you can design the site so it works a ) with CSS disabled, and b ) with images/js turned off.

Only when the framework is in place and working do you go to your graphic designer with specifications he/she has to design to.

This post has been edited by BlueDreamer: 27 January 2010 - 08:28 PM