Find a potential customer and run the idea past him/her.
Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
11–20 of 74 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#12Personally this is what I do: 1) Idea 2) Write a small paragraph explaining the idea 3) Derive features 4) Make todo list 5) Make mockups using mockingbird (awesome tool) 6) Write some code 7) Get bored and go back to 1) (not recommended) Between 5 and 6 It should be better to work on the design rather than code. Code should be last imo. Also I hope someone could erase step7 and actually launch the product :)
It may work well for you, and you should certainly feel free to work however you like, but I've found that diving into the code as early as possible works better for me.
I'm generally driven by seeing something working, even if it's only working enough that I can see some data on a page or have a single button that makes something happen.
If I can keep a good decoupling between my views and my models it's pretty easy to go back whenever I get the itch and make things look nicer without touching anything else. Unless you have a lot of javascript doing intense dom operations on a page you should be able to redesign it at will without worrying about breaking anything else, so I don't really worry about getting it right the first time, or really any time unless I'm getting ready to show it someone who's going to judge it on visual rather than functional grounds.
I've found (and, again, this may only apply to me and not you) that leaving design for later helps keep me from getting bogged down in details and losing my steam. If I have a very concrete picture of how something should look in my head I start worrying about getting my boxes to line up right and why my line heights are off and all that stuff that doesn't actually contribute to getting anything working. If I've purposely left the design aside I've in essence given myself permission to be okay with things looking crappy until I feel like fixing it, which helps keep me going on things that actually contribute to working code.
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#13Make a mockup in HTML/CSS or Photoshop/Fireworks, then show it to someone.
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#14Write something, anything! It doesn't even matter how good it is, just get something up and running. Then change it. Change it again. Repeat.
Have you ever written anything before? Good. Then take the closest thing you have from your repository, strip out the code that doesn't apply and file it under the new name. There. You're already x% done. Now finish.
I've tried many different approaches, but this one has worked best for me. It may seem counter intuitive, but I have found that things move along much faster when I enhance a minimal product than if I stew with my thoughts for too long.
[EDIT: No offense taken, but I took out the template. Now close your browser and go write your own.]
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#151) Idea
2) check market potential using google keyword tools and get an answer to the question: Can I make money with this?
3) If 2) ist positive, then write it down and go to 4) , if not, forget about it.
4) set workflow then mockup
5) code
6) SEO
7) try to get ramen profitable
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#16Find customers.
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#17You can try what the 37signals guys recommend at http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch06_From_Idea_to_Implement...
1. Brainstorm
2. Paper sketches
3. HTML + CSS mockup
4. CodeRe: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#181. idea 2. google the idea 3. html mockup 4. code
Or, my favorite: 1. idea x 2. google idea x, find nothing 3. spend 2 weeks working on it 4. realize your idea isn't actually x, but more like y. 5. google y, find a bunch of people have already implemented it.
6. So go back to doing x.
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#19Personally this is what I do: 1) Idea 2) Write a small paragraph explaining the idea 3) Derive features 4) Make todo list 5) Make mockups using mockingbird (awesome tool) 6) Write some code 7) Get bored and go back to 1) (not recommended) Between 5 and 6 It should be better to work on the design rather than code. Code should be last imo. Also I hope someone could erase step7 and actually launch the product :)
It may work well for you, and you should certainly feel free to work however you like, but I've found that diving into the code as early as possible works better for me. I'm generally driven by seeing something working, even if it's only working enough that I can see some data on a page or have a single button that makes something happen. If I can keep a good decoupling between my views and my models it's pretty easy…
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you begin the process of developing a web application?
#20Personally this is what I do: 1) Idea 2) Write a small paragraph explaining the idea 3) Derive features 4) Make todo list 5) Make mockups using mockingbird (awesome tool) 6) Write some code 7) Get bored and go back to 1) (not recommended) Between 5 and 6 It should be better to work on the design rather than code. Code should be last imo. Also I hope someone could erase step7 and actually launch the product :)
It may work well for you, and you should certainly feel free to work however you like, but I've found that diving into the code as early as possible works better for me. I'm generally driven by seeing something working, even if it's only working enough that I can see some data on a page or have a single button that makes something happen. If I can keep a good decoupling between my views and my models it's pretty easy…
It doesn't work for me, because I'm bad at design unfortunately. But from my experience from client projects where I dive into code first to implement specs from my clients without having them a final design usually tend to be slow progressing projects. Sometimes they die half way because it works but it looks terrible and the user experience sucks, even though they know its not finished yet, it kills motivation by a dissapointing user experience.
If you have a design which looks awesome, at least for me, I have greater motivation to get it work. The more detailed and comprehensive the design is, the more eager I am to make it work.
But again, this is what works for projects I've done for clients. Personally I don't have any good finished projects, none of the methods I tried worked there.