Is it better to develop the backend portion before the frontend UI design is ready?
Hey!
So I am currently trying to understand something in software dev workflow, as this is not my background. Plus I looked online but got so many different answers, so I am trying to get an insight of an expert in the matter.
Would love to know if it's possible to develop the backend portion of a software/app with only the wireframes ready? And then once the UI design is ready we can start building the frontend portion of it. Given that the UX flow and the wireframes won't change during the design.
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I believe it can cause a big dependency and might affect the timelines.
The practice that we follow is sit with the frontend team/engineers or create RFCs, and discuss the API contracts. Once the contracts are finalized, we expose endpoints with mock responses.
So the frontend is unblocked and development can now be done at both ends in parallel
Thanks for your insights!
This means that if we want to ship faster without affecting the final quality of the product the best case scenario it will be both being developed at the same time.
However, in the situation that we are in, we need to ship a bit fast! So we were thinking of mapping out the entire experience, and creating wireframed prototype so that the back-end developers are well informed of how everything works and to what it's connected, so once the hifi design is ready, the front-end team can jump in and start developing the front-end portion of the app - So Is this possible, or will it create more headache than the time it can save?
Again, I appreciate your first insight!
I see! I got your point. I am a backend engineer, and during my experience for at least the last 3 years, we have always got a hifi design for any new feature or existing feature modifications.
That is because we follow the API-for-frontend approach. Both the frontend and the backend teams work together to design the best API response (for future possible changes).
Hifi design, because wireframes are never 'final'. And we have had such incidents where the hifi design turned out to be something completely different than the wireframes.
So, creating wireframe prototypes can be a useful step in the development process, as long as it's done thoughtfully and with care. It's important to balance the benefits of this approach with the time and effort required to create accurate and useful wireframes.
Definitely, what you are suggesting is a doable option, as blocking both teams just because the design is not ready is not a viable thing to do. But in that case, wireframes should be created very carefully, making sure that the hifi design wouldn't be a 90 degrees flip (90 degrees because 180 degrees isn't an option :D)
I hope I made sense.
Thanks for your thorough explanation.
And yes what you said made sense.
I see, so as long as the wireframe and the hifi designs are the same in terms of experience and page flow (i.e. only how the components are designed instead of the interactivity)
So this means we need to design the wireframes as if it's the final version without any design language per se.
Accurate!
Thanks, I really appreciate your insights!