Process for working with a remote Web Designer on an ASP.NET MVC project

Question

I have a side project done in ASP.NET MVC. So far the presentation is just very basic functionality.

If I were to hire a designer online and work with them to produce the final website design what process should I follow to make it as easy as possible to take their HTML and CSS and translate that into ASP.NET MVC controls etc?

I am unclear on the best way to do this and where the responsibilities of the developer finish and the designer would begin?

How do these two people that speak different languages work smoothly together to quickly converge on the final product?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would give them mockups done with Balsamiq Mock or some other tool.

You should also define screen resolution, how much of the fonts is done as graphics and what parts are dynamic at the end and what not. The designer needs the information about the dynamic parts because he will give these texts more space.

Then they would usually do some sample layouts for 2-3 pages that you discuss.

From there they start to do the final Photoshop layouts.

Hopefully the designer also does the HTML. If not the document is passed to the html-designer who slices the documents and produces the html+css.

It's crucial that you find a designer who can do design and html. Otherwise you lose some time when the html-guy has to talk back to the designer. Both have to talk at least: otherwise the html-guy will complain about mising fonts, controls that do look different on the designer mac then on a real computer and text content planned by the designer that can't be read because the font is too small.

The result would be a complete clickable site in html.

Answer 2

Typically what I do is just structure the views in a general way with CSS classes and clean HTML. Then, for the most part I take the designer's HTML template and cut out the top and bottom and paste them into my master page(s). From there I just need to update some of the CSS classes to match the designer's fonts and colors, etc.

I usually just request the Photoshop PSD from my designers and then I do the slicing into HTML/CSS so I know exactly how the page is structured, and I control the CSS. But designers are used to working with people who maybe aren't as design-knowledgeable (read: developers), so just find a good designer, and they'll get you set up right.

Try: http://programmermeetdesigner.com/