I really struggle with design, so one of the main challenges I have launching any product is the UI.
But I've been promised these things in the past, and wasted money on them. 99 Designs, Freelancer, ThemeForest (including asking the theme developer for customisations). I've tried them all, and they've never worked. So I approach this fairly sceptically.
But I'd love to see it work.
Usually the biggest problem is not the up-front design - there are some lovely ones out there. It's "how do I map this solution for this problem into a UI that makes sense?". And I can't imagine how you systematise that, but it would be amazing if you could.
You're getting into "launch your house without hiring an architect" territory there. UI isn't so much tricky as it is an entirely separate discipline, devoted entirely to context, with a ton of thinking already done and ready to be applied at the individual level.
Just having a few off-the-rack workflows that are easy to play with would be helpful.
Yeah, I think you're exactly right re:"just having a few off-the-rack workflows that are easy to play with would be helpful". There really seems to be standard conventions that would work for most workflows, kind of like what component galleries do for web design. I haven't explored where that idea may lead. We're a long way off from trying to tackle UI design, but it does seem interesting.
I think just hiring a UX professional to come up with wireframes for the n most common workflows would do the trick. Build them out yourself. You'd have actual research data to wave in front of investors, and anything more than that will irritate the folks who want to roll their own UI.
But I've been promised these things in the past, and wasted money on them. 99 Designs, Freelancer, ThemeForest (including asking the theme developer for customisations). I've tried them all, and they've never worked. So I approach this fairly sceptically.
But I'd love to see it work.
Usually the biggest problem is not the up-front design - there are some lovely ones out there. It's "how do I map this solution for this problem into a UI that makes sense?". And I can't imagine how you systematise that, but it would be amazing if you could.