How to outsource web design on an Asp.Net Mvc application

Question

I want to outsource the design of my Asp.Net Mvc web application.

How can I make it easier for the designer to work on the site design and easier for me to plug it in to my master page and css file?

The Views will have elements like grids and other information display.

My application is still in the early stages of development. Should I complete the application first or should I have the entire site designed and then develop the application to fit the design?

What files should I send them to start working on the design?

Answer 1

This, in my opinion, has always been an issue not just with MVC. Designers and Developers have always grappled for control of the page during its life cycle.

I think the MVP pattern, and so MVC, lends itself quite nicely to finally achieving the holy grail.

For example, here at muppet labs, we write all the back end code first along with our tests. In the mean time the designers are busy drawing pretty pictures that they can cut up later.

Once the code is done we take a look at the design, decide what is a partial view etc, modify code slightly to accommodate, create basic views and partial views which are functional but not pretty.

the designers then take the views and partial views and apply their styles to them.

There might be further tweaks required to views and partial views to fit in with design but overall the process works a heck of lot smoother than it did with traditional web forms.

Answer 2

One way would be to create simple HTML wire frames first. These would show all the pages, how they link together, the data that will be displayed on these pages and the functionality.

Both the designer and developer can then use these wire frames to base their work on. The developer can first work to create a dynamic version of the wire frame while the designer designs the best solution to displaying the data and functionality contained in the wireframes.