ASP.NET 3.5 Enterprise Application Development with Visual Studio® 2008: Problem - Design - Solution

Chapter 4. The User Interface Layer

Have you ever built an application with a tremendous amount of functionality, one on which you've spent a great deal of time meeting all of the user's requirements, designing the perfect database, and creating a slick object model to handle the business rules, yet the user's first comment after your demo is "the font is too small"? Users don't care how great everything works behind the scenes and how much time and effort you expended considering multiple scenarios and confirming that the application's functionality works as expected. All they have to say is that the font is too small. What a way to take the wind out of your sails. I've met a lot of developers in my time and most think very similarly. Developers are very logical and possess the skills to dissect a problem into manageable pieces. They can translate requirements into a data model or object model without blinking an eye, but when it comes to building the user interface, things start to fall apart. The tools used to develop slick interfaces aren't the same tools used to design code or databases, and developers have to come out of their comfort zone to become a Picasso. Lining up text boxes on a screen isn't typically the programmer's primary focus. That's what junior developers are supposed to do, right? It's like being a percussionist in a band. You are responsible for keeping the beat, but the lead singer gets all the glory while you are buried behind the drums where no one can ...