Introduction to Designing Web Application

Plan and design a web application

Uptil now, we’ve learned our way around the key pieces of the technology stack. Now, we’re ready to put it all together. While the focus of this course is on the technical aspects, the question of design cannot be entirely avoided. This chapter explores, through examples, how we might design a web application. In doing so, we’ll end up making a number of decisions about what the screen looks like, what sort of interactions are possible, and what information must be tracked to make this work. The design phase is the best time to make changes in the plans. Changes made later come at a greater cost of time, effort, and complexity. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon to spend too much time designing, creating an overly complex first version of the application, and then getting mired in the details of implementation. The best approach is the middle way. We’ll specify the main ideas, the key interaction points, the impression the pages should give, and allow ourselves the latitude to develop “some version” of the idea later on. This approach is faster, more effective, and more fun.