Is it okay to start the layout of a website with a photoshop mockup?

Question

This is a best-practice topic.

I saw it as a prefer method for some web developers. Instead of doing the CSS layout from scratch, they start a photoshop mockup first and then decode it into CSS.

What do you think about this approach?

Best to all,

Answer 1

Mockups are great, but I don't know if photoshop is the very first thing you'd want to try for the purpose -- at the very start, when you're just trying to get a logical layout for the various pages of the site (before refining it in terms of looks &c), a whiteboard with dry-erase markers and post-it notes affords for very fast, repeated mock-up rearrangements for the early brainstorming. Once there is some reasonable agreement on one (or a very few) possible arrangements of information, then visually more accurate tools enter into play.

BTW, just don't forget to photograph the whiteboard before changing it (any decent cellphone will do, you're not trying for high quality here;-) any time there are ideas or suggestions you may want to revisit or ponder in the future!