UX Designer Stages of Development

Stage 1: Wandering into the woods and getting stuck in a bramble bush.

You start with a core idea. You think of an edge case. You follow that edge case through to its natural conclusion. You present in a meeting and everyone says, “but what about the Core Idea? And this other use case?” You’re embarrassed and vow to never get caught unawares again.

Stage 2: Minesweeping and yak shaving.

You start with a core idea. You think of a solution for every single possible edge case because you have no idea which ones may actually be true. You present all of them. Everyone’s eyes glaze over and they start asking about the helper text beneath the cancellation button in the hypothetical use case that was most recently on the slide. A yak enters the room and you find yourself shaving it. You leave the meeting with some yak hair and no idea of whether the design was approved or not. You wonder why your job feels so exhausting and frustrating and why meetings seem to go around in circles.

Stage 3: Indiana Jones.

You start with a core idea. You make yourself come up with 2 alternate core ideas. You follow each one to its conclusion. You think of edge cases and write them down because you don’t yet know if they actually have to be solved. You present the ideas. When people ask about edge cases you write them down and redirect everyone back to the core ideas. The group is able to compare the 3 core ideas and decide which one is the best bet. You leave the meeting with a plan. You use research to identify the actual edge cases, quantify how frequently they’re likely to occur, and work through them. You present the core idea again. Someone asks about an edge case and you show them the plan for it. Someone else asks about another one and you show them the plan for that. Everyone realizes you’ve thought of the use cases and they relax because they know you’ve got it handled.