@Joe: When a coder teams up with a designer, to develop and app, is this generally a fifty/fifty work load, and an even partnership? or is one job more work than the other?
Neither engineering nor UI design is "harder" than the other, so I don't think that's really the way to look at it. Both usually take a lot of experience to get good at (though some are naturally talented), but they're different jobs. In some cases, a designer and a developer will form a 50/50 partnership, but that's just one option.
If one decides to hire a professional for the design (I hope I'm not going to far here), what does that generally cost?
There's no simple way to answer that, but the range of hourly rates for designers is roughly the same as engineers. I don't want to name a specific number because there are a lot of different factors: experience, location, type of project, type of employment, and so on.
And if a designer wants to develop an app, and hire out the implementation side, is this a similar cost?
I think that's pretty likely.
Do you move to California to meet people or try to get a job to get some experience before going out on your own?
I wish I knew how to give you a precise answer. All I can say is I've lived here for most of my life, and a lot of people here are involved in technology in some way. We're right in the middle of Apple, Google, and so on. I really think I'm incredibly lucky to have ended up living in the place I live, knowing the people I know.
Some people do move out here specifically to be involved in it, but that's not the only way, and it wouldn't make everyone happy. But it is an option. That said, there are plenty of successful Mac developers who don't live in California.
I'm not sure offhand what the best option is to find co-workers and get involved if you're not physically near other people doing the same sort of work.
One good option that seems to have worked very well over the years is to publish open source code or tutorials. Contributing to the community gets your work out in the public and helps you become a better developer in the process.
I hope that helps. If you have follow-up questions, let me know.
by Scott Stevenson — May 24
Neither engineering nor UI design is "harder" than the other, so I don't think that's really the way to look at it. Both usually take a lot of experience to get good at (though some are naturally talented), but they're different jobs. In some cases, a designer and a developer will form a 50/50 partnership, but that's just one option.
If one decides to hire a professional for the design (I hope I'm not going to far here), what does that generally cost?
There's no simple way to answer that, but the range of hourly rates for designers is roughly the same as engineers. I don't want to name a specific number because there are a lot of different factors: experience, location, type of project, type of employment, and so on.
And if a designer wants to develop an app, and hire out the implementation side, is this a similar cost?
I think that's pretty likely.
Do you move to California to meet people or try to get a job to get some experience before going out on your own?
I wish I knew how to give you a precise answer. All I can say is I've lived here for most of my life, and a lot of people here are involved in technology in some way. We're right in the middle of Apple, Google, and so on. I really think I'm incredibly lucky to have ended up living in the place I live, knowing the people I know.
Some people do move out here specifically to be involved in it, but that's not the only way, and it wouldn't make everyone happy. But it is an option. That said, there are plenty of successful Mac developers who don't live in California.
I'm not sure offhand what the best option is to find co-workers and get involved if you're not physically near other people doing the same sort of work.
One good option that seems to have worked very well over the years is to publish open source code or tutorials. Contributing to the community gets your work out in the public and helps you become a better developer in the process.
I hope that helps. If you have follow-up questions, let me know.