How do you determine if doing something the right way will handicap you?

Question

I have a horrible habit, actually something I'm wrestling with right this moment, when I think of a better way to do something - either a refactor, or something that would just be SO MUCH COOLER LOOKING, or such a better UX, I just HAVE to do it. Even when it would cost me time and I'm in a time crunch. I never know when to say, "no, there isn't time for this I can do it later."

Is there a line you draw?

Like right now I need a way to display magazine articles that are in the database. The easy way would be to create a new .aspx page and just pass the article id. the AWESOME way would be a jquery fade in modal that would display the article. At least that's what I think. Not being a guru it would take me longer to write. We are launching next week no time for extra crap. However, I just can't bring myself to do it the easy way.

Does anyone else run into this problem? Wondering if more experienced programmers have some wisdom to share.

Answer 1

I'd go the quick route first.

Write an ASPX page that is showing an article based on ID, or even cooler and more SEO-friendly, a slug. You'll be able to meet your deadline. Then, I'd start on the awesome jQuery way.

The bonus to this is that you'll have a fallback option, in case that a user has JavaScript disabled.

Answer 2

You're talking about "gold plating". It's a very common and well-known issue for software developers.

From the glorious founder of StackOverflow himself:

30: Developer gold-plating. Developers are fascinated by new technology and are sometimes anxious to try out new features of their language or environment or to create their own implementation of a slick feature they saw in another product--whether or not it's required in their product. The effort required to design, implement, test, document, and support features that are not required lengthens the schedule.

The proper way to cure this problem is to volunteer for so much work that you don't have time to do it right, let alone add on extra bells and whistles. :)

Edit: Other "classic mistakes" link here.