Database User Interface Design Process

Question

I am a "one man shop" and am expected to develop databases and interfaces to those databases. Developing online front-ends using web frameworks is time-consuming, and it adds opportunities for error in my code due to the sheer number of layers I am dealing with (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python (Mako + SQLAlchemy) , Postgres). Do other people in this (100% awesome@!@$#!!!!!!!) situation usually write, say, a text-based interface to the database to perfect access and update methods, or is straight web-based CRUD normal?

Answer 1

It depends on your users. Tech savy or nubs? High pressure environment or casual? Heavy keyboard users or do they reach for the mouse at every chance they get? etc etc

Design around their needs, and ideally design around their tasks. A simple CRUD based approach may be fine for your userbase and problem domain, or it may be a cumbersome choice. Truthfully in my experience CRUD is rarely the right way to go - it mirrors your data model, and let's be fair, data models are never designed around user expectations or usecases.

Spend a little time getting to know your userbase - designing UIs is so much easier once you do.

Fluffy answer, but there really is no true answer :)