This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by David Heinemeier Hansson. Original Post: I want my photoshop comps! Feed Title: Loud Thinking Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LoudThinking Feed Description: All about the full-stack, web-framework Rails for Ruby and on putting it to good effect with Basecamp Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by David Heinemeier Hansson Latest Posts From Loud Thinking

Simen Bekken writes in comments for The false promise of template languages:

Our designers never deliver anything but Photoshop comps or at best slices, and I wouldn't want it any other way. It's all about delivering a quality product and the graphic designers should focus on the design, and you as a programmer on the implementation.

Simen, surely photoshop comps is the right thing to deliver is all you have is "graphic designers". Thankfully, there are many other forms of designers. The ones running 37signals are first and foremost application designers — focusing on visual priority, interaction flow, etc. The closer to real they are, the closer to the elements they can operate, the better designs they do.

The constraints of HTML/CSS and web interfaces should be available to the designers all the time. It's the feedback that causes good designs. Constraints don't inhibit creativity, they foster it.

When you're just photoshop comping, you're merely painting pretty pictures. Those pretty pictures may or may not translate well into designs. My experience has been that they are way more "pretty" than useful. They also tend to make you focus way to much on looks and way to little on interaction. You can't interact with a photoshop comp, but you can easily interact and get a feel for a flow of five HTML screens linked together.

Additionally, it's a big waste. Doing the whole thing in photoshop, then redoing everything in HTML is wasteful. It certainly depends on your organization, but getting real faster, going HTML sooner, is a way to do big things with small teams.

I believe photoshop comp'ers are great for making the next Nike commercial site with spinning wheels, flashing shoes, and pretty photos zapping back and forth. They're terribly inefficient and inadequate for designing applications, though.