Rapid iteration

So I've just stumbled across a nice little workflow hack that I thought I'd share. When building UI's after the initial sketching and wireframing is done I tend to spend the majority of my time within Adobe Fireworks where I'll work on the aesthetic components. When I get to this point I find it really crucial to be verifying things on device so that I see what it looks like with the pixel density and colour reproduction of the target panel.

What I had traditionally done was to set up a temp TP4 file, load the image in as a full screen button, save and then transfer. Now, I had gotten this down to a muscle memory / twitch operation however it still sucks when you're wanting to try lots of things quickly and iterate. Then I considered dynamic images.

With a single full screen button that houses a dynamic image being served by a one line http server on my machine I now have a system where every time I save the design the preview on the panel updates. Boooom (near) instant feedback.