Lone application dev is a bit like like jumping over a canyon on a rocket bike. What I mean is the hard bit is the bit everyone else sees as easy, it’s the knowing what you want to do and deciding how it’s going to work. The actual assemble of the raw materials is techically hard, but actually the easy bit.
And so I found myself reliving the metaphor this week building VATstar50. How will the user use it, I need to provide a choice of 235 countries 3 times, that’s quite a pick list, or do I do it graphically, but who knows the Marshall Islands from Vanuatu? After much back and forth the look and feel is done. It’s very simple after many other Java script includes it’s just simple and I am not sure why I spent to long trying to make tax look sexy.
I guess what I am really trying to say is that we have to respect the designer in us as much the the developer. Too quickly we turn to developing a solution when we really don’t know what we want. It just seams cathartic to build some thing rather than taking the time to just design it.