THE PROCESS

My process is very iterative and has evolved from my experience across multiple disciplines. What has emerged is a synergy between UX Design, Agile development principles, and the Lean Startup methodologies. In my design process, it is my belief that it is important to first answer the 5 Ws (Who, What, Where, When, and Why). After these questions are answered, I can begin to tackle the How. What follows is my general design process from start to finish and focuses on gathering user feedback at every stage of development.

The Creative Process

Preplanning

Even before starting on a project, it’s important to figure out the scope of the project. It can help avoid any misunderstandings along the way. Nothing is worse than having goals, deadlines, or budgets be undefined. Providing a roadmap, with some key milestones that can be reached at specific points along the timeline of the project can benefit the designer, the team, and the client.

Methods Used in Preplanning:

Task Analysis
Stakeholder Mapping
Service Blueprints

Discovery

This is where the designer gets down into the weeds of the project and where a lot of user and competitor research activities happens. The data gathered can be used to draw new insights for the project. Capturing, organizing, and making inferences from the “what” can help UX Designers begin to understand the “why”. Communicating the designer’s understanding back to end-users helps to confirm that any assumptions being made are valid.

Methods Used in Discovery:

Interviews
Empathy Mapping
User Research
Competitive Analysis
Analytics & Heuristics
Data Analysis
User Stories
User Flows

Ideation

This is where the designer takes all the information learned in the discovery phase and organizes it. From all options available, the designer can explore the best choice for the project, and start to sketch it out, create a wireframe, and eventually build a prototype. User feedback was gathered in both the preplanning and discovery phases; in the ideation phase, however, the premise of the is to put ideas in front of users, get their feedback, refine them, and repeat.

Methods Used in Ideation:

Sketching
Wireframes
Information Architecture
Paper Prototypes
Journey Mapping & Pageflows
User Stories
Interaction Design

Design & Development

The Design phase is where the high-fidelity design is fleshed out, and usually one design is chosen. Content is curated and digital assets are created along with a style guide. A final mockup is usually approved by the stakeholders and end-users validate the selection through user testing sessions. Here, all assets are handed over to development and the role of the designer changes. Designer responsibilities have less to do with creation in this phase and more to do with validating ideas, collaborating with developers, and guiding and championing the vision.

Methods Used in Design and Development:

Design Sprints
Style Guides
High-Fidelity Visual Design
Rapid Prototyping
Mockups
A/B Testing

Validation

After feedback is received from the audience and stakeholders, it may be necessary to revisit some of the research undertaken, get additional user feedback, and plan for the next iteration.

Methods Used in Validation:

Accessibility
Usability Testing
Feedback Integration

Release

Here, the designer makes sure all metrics and analytics are set up before going live. This is probably the easiest, yet most terrifying step, as the product is now open to the world.

Evaluation

Regular user feedback is key to product development and because of this, a product, in a way, is never really “done.” If the goal is to continually optimize the product, the designer may cycle back through the design process to create new versions with new features. Different releases and outcomes from each iteration can be evaluated and priorities adjusted accordingly.

Methods Used in Evaluation:

User feedback
Analytics
Metrics
Feedback Loop
Iterative Design
Retrospectives