How do I implement a new UI / design on top of my Twitter app?

Forgive me if this post is too naive-sounding. I have a Twitter app that has already been developed (in Ruby on Rails) and is functional, but the UI, as it currently stands, is...crap. As such, I'd like the cosmetic aspects of the a开发者_如何学JAVApp to be completely redone, but I'm at a loss as to how to go about doing so. Being a neophyte to RoR as well, I'm not even sure where I should start in the first place. Also, who could I approach (Forrst? Elance?)?

As is obvious, I'm nowhere close to being a web designer.

Thanks.

Luckily, with rails, the design should be highly segregated from the application's functionality.

The only modifications you need to make may all be in the views or public directories. Check out public/stylesheets, where you can modify stylesheets for each model.

All of the HTML that needs modified should be in app/views/model_name and there is a generic layout in app/views/layouts named application.html.erb that is the base of all of the pages.

Forrst is full of talented folks. Be sure to know what you want ahead of time and approach them professionally, because ... well, they're professionals and deserve that.

Step 1: Design a mockups of the UI, using something like balsamiq, http://balsamiq.com/ or just pen and paper

Step 2: write the bare minimum HTML to make it work, add JS to improve the experience

Step 3: Get a designer to flesh out the mocukups.

Step 4: Style your HTML to match the design, using CSS