The core concept of UX Process
What is a UX process? How can we achieve great UX? What do we need to do? Where are we going to start? I know you have a lot of questions in your mind. OK, let’s look into how a basic UX process would look like.
And always remember that UX is not just a part of your project; it’s everything. UX process is the big picture, and everything else is inside it.
This is a basic UX process that is being practised in the industry. Let’s look into each phase of the process in detail.
Strategy
The strategy is the most critical phase of the UX process. There is no one process which will suite for any organisation or project. You need to align it with organisations culture, brand, guiding principles, and long-term vision of the organisation.
The strategy underpinning a UX project will shape the goals of the project — what the organisation is hoping to achieve with the project, how its success should be measured, and what priority it should have in the grand scheme of things.
Research
Often referred to as the Discovery phase, the Research phase is probably the most variable between projects. Complex projects will comprise significant user and competitor research activities, while small startup websites may skip all research activities other than some informal interviews and a survey. The research phase is key to creating an informed user experience.
Requirement gathering is a critical phase in the life cycle. If we didn’t capture the requirement clearly in the first place, we would struggle in the middle. End-user plays a vital role here. Therefore we need high involvement of end-users in this phase.
Building a low fidelity prototype and walk-through it while the requirement gathering phase will definitely benefit capturing the requirements. Therefore I highly recommend the use of low fidelity prototypes.
Analysis
The Analysis phase aims to draw insights from data collected during the Research phase. Capturing, organising 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.
Design
The Design phase of a UX project is collaborative (involving input and ideas from different people) and iterative (meaning that it cycles back upon itself to validate ideas and assumptions). Building on the user feedback loop established in previous phases, the premise of the Design phase is to put ideas in front of users, get their feedback, refine them, and repeat. These ideas may be represented by paper prototypes, interactive wireframes, or semi-functioning prototypes, all deliberately created in low-fidelity to delay any conversation relating to graphic identity, branding or visual details.
Development
The development phase is where the high-fidelity design is fleshed out, content and digital assets are created, and a high-fidelity version of the product is validated with stakeholders and end-users through user testing sessions.
This is an iterative process, and you need to communicate with users more often and go in iterations to refine the experience. Start with core concepts in your mind and with the time you can build your process which best suites for your organisation.
