Re:Ask HN: Best way to redesign an existing webapp?
by CyberFonic on Friday July 03, 2009 @09:03PM
(#686772)
Looked at your reply! Very good for the usability part. Whether it's possible to start with the skin first depends on how much the changes impact upon the underlying processing.
Re:Ask HN: Best way to redesign an existing webapp?
by bjclark on Saturday July 04, 2009 @01:19AM
(#686924)
Don't think of it as starting with the "usability" part. This is starting with the "user" part. What do your users want? What do they need? Choosing the users that you want to support and what features they need will drive what you need the backend to do and thus the underlying data-structures needed.
Excerpt: The biggest thing to manage in a redesign is risk. Risk you alienate your user base or do something that negatively impacts revenue, or whatever you're most afraid of.
The easiest way to manage it is to shorten your feedback cycle (not user feedback, any type of feedback) to the smallest possible interval. When talking about design, this means you need to spend the least amount of time on the design you can before you put it in front of someone that exemplifies your average user (persona).