Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#1

Post by sjp602 » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 1:27 PM UTC

I am about to start a personal web-based project, it is of no commercial value - just something fun.

How do you go about designing your personal projects? Do you hack them straight out or sit down and design them first (pencil and paper/UML)?

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#2

Post by thomaslee » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 1:34 PM UTC

design? :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#3

Post by threebutton » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 1:50 PM UTC

Always always pencil and paper. Even if it's a wireframe, and that's all you "design" (meaning no graphics, etc). Even on a personal project, don't waste time! Do the process right.

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#4

Post by ambirex » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 1:50 PM UTC

It really depends on the scope of the project. Simple projects I just hack through, which acts like a design process.

In 2004 I built a personal delicious clone, which I pretty much hacked together in a week. Overtime I added more and more features. Now, I'm contemplating rewriting it in a framework. It has grown past a weekend hack so now I'm mapping it out.

It's best to know how you work. For me its better to have a working prototype that I can tinker with, even if I know I'll rebuild it eventually.

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#5

Post by jparicka » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 2:59 PM UTC

Break it into 100 tasks and start chipping them away. One a day. I started on this in Septeber http://alpha.beepl.com currently stuck on broken down computer.. Kind of sucks.

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#6

Post by stonemetal » Thu, Jan 13, 2011, 3:25 PM UTC

Typically I do work flow UI drawings for high level design. Then do what ends up looking like a dictionary of class names and descriptions of their responsibilities|interactions but only at a high to intermediate level of the program.

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#7

Post by hasenj » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 12:03 AM UTC

"hack them straight out"

Any design would be totally just in my head. I'd only sketch something on paper if it's a GUI.

The design that's in my head is basically a short list of what it should do and what it should not do.

Re: Ask HN: How do you design your personal (toy) projects?

#8

Post by weirdcat » Sat, Jan 15, 2011, 1:26 AM UTC

I usually start with some rough pencil drawings and a lot of thinking about the flow of the site, then hack out a prototype. Then I sit in front of it and stare, tweaking a thing at a time, until I'm happy with the result. Then I leave it there for a few hours or a day and stare some more. Whenever I have an idea that would substantially change the look, I usually sketch it again before implementing it.

The pencil and paper thing in my case works as a way to organize my thoughts and define what I'm actually going to do, rather than a formal design process. Usually I have an A4 sheet (or rather several) scribbled with ideas and sketches regarding a single project.