UX&UI Design Process when Designing a New Product
Currently I am working in a UX design agency based in Silicon Valley which designs software applications for big enterprise clients. In this post I will guide you through the UX & UI design process I follow in most of the projects.
Here is a step by step guide on the UX&UI Design Process:
1. Workshop with the client (2–3 days)
Workshop is the first step and a key part of the UX process where foundational user research occurs. The objective during this phase is to understand as much as possible your client’s business, their goals, users and competitors. It includes the following steps:
Building Personas
Building personas is the first most important step in the UX&UI design process.
A persona is a description of a user mostly based on user research, including user goals, needs, and interests. Personas can be used to validate or disprove design decisions.
In most of the cases the client knows more less about their current or potential users. If the client is still not sure about that, the best way is to brainstorm and come up with at least 3 User Personas.
Describe the character of each Persona as detailed as possible. Age, gender, occupation.
What problems each Persona has? What time of the day they are visiting websites? And so on. Use a whiteboard to put your thoughts on it.
When you get answers for all the necessary questions, come up with the name and add a photo to make it more personal and realistic. Document all these information into templates. Here is a good example of a Personas Template I have found in the Internet so far.
Reviewing key Features of the Product & Competitive Analysis
Next step is defining key Features of the product.
The client might already know the features that they want to implement into their product. However, it will be very helpful to conduct a competitive analysis, review features of top 3–5 products in the client’s industry and find out what can you include in the new product to make it stand out more from competitors. A helpful tip is to screenshot and print out those competitor’s features and stick them on the board. That way you will have a holistic view to perform a better comparison.
When you are done with the research, organize your conclusions and ideas into a Google sheet document. Make sure the client has an access to that document so that they always can review it and add their thoughts.
Card Sorting & Information Architecture (IA)
Card sorting is a technique that is used to help design or analyze the information architecture of the product. During a card sorting session, topics are sorted out into categories by participants, (based on how it makes sense to them). To carry out a card sorting, you can make use of actual cards or Post-it notes. Engage the client to participate in that process.
Card sorting can help you understand the product’s structure, MVP functionalities and scope.
After you are done with a card sorting exercise, digitize it into the Informational Architecture (IA) document. IA is connected to content usability. The goal is to help users find data and complete tasks. To accomplish this, you must understand how pieces fit together to make the bigger picture, and the way items are related to one another within the system.
User Journey Map
This is a visible and comprehensive analysis of a story from an individual’s viewpoint of their relationship with a company, service, product or brand, in the long term and across channels. Sometimes a much more narrative, text-based approach is required to explain nuances and details related to a customer experience. Tell the story from the customer’s point of view, think about what they might feel at the particular steps of the flow, what pain points they have and so on. It will help you to understand what components to include into particular parts of the app. For example, if you are creating a Smart Home app, the user might become stressful while setting up a smart home devices since he/she has never done this before. In that case, it would be helpful to include some tips (video / illustration / animation) on how to make a set up on that particular stage. Since I am not able to share Journey Maps from the projects I was working on, I will share a link to a very good example of the JM template.
2. Creating Backlog
Once you came up with all the features and components, create a Google Sheet document and put that information there, come up with estimates. Basically, Google Sheet is a document containing an overall listing of all requirements under consideration, rank ordered, as well as matrixed with other key characteristics that support planning and prioritization. It contributes greatly to planning ahead & track design units all through the various steps of the process, it helps Design team to better scope and keep the client well informed.
3. Navigation Concept
Set up the patterns and interface structure that users are going to use to get around the software. This structure is going to be the foundation which the wireframes are created.
4. Wireframing
Wireframing is a significant step in the for-screen design process. It is the architectural blueprint for an interface. It is important to note that wireframes could be accomplished in a number of ways from paper sketches to computer drawn images
Low fidelity wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes are much faster to create and are generally a tool to facilitate team communication on a project. Low fidelity wireframes in many cases are a starting point for a designer’s initial thoughts on a layout and the content writers’ preliminary thoughts on content length and hierarchical relevance.
High fidelity wireframes
The high-fidelity wireframe features more actual content, specific typeface options and could include precise information on image dimensions, and even button styles. Play with shades of grey as opposed to sticking to sheer black and white in an effort to lay out subtleties that will appear as soon as color is applied, style the navigation.
5. Clickable prototype
Build a clickable prototype that reflects the software. The goal here is to focus on the app functionality as opposed to aesthetics. Upload a Sketch file to InVision and link all the screens between each other. InVision is a great tool to communicate with the client. You can use “Notes” to add a description to particular parts of the screen. It will help to avoid a plenty of questions from the Client’s side.
6. Visual Design
Presenting Moodboards for the client
Moodbooards are a collaborative collection of images and references that develops into a product’s visual style guide eventually. They are showing clients and colleagues a proposed look for the products before investing too much time on it. Create 3 Moodboards — Light, Medium and Dark. You can use them further for other projects.
After the client gave you a direction regarding the look and feel of the product, create 2–3 Visual Design concepts (light, medium and dark theme). When presenting a Visual design, explain decisions you have made regarding specific element placement and interactions. The client will choose a desirable concept and/or elements from different concepts.
Next step — iteration on Visual Design concept (implementing feedback from the client, combining concepts/elements if needed).
7. Interaction Animations
Because humans are visually driven creatures, the effect of imagery basically increases with the aid of animation. Our eyes innately focus on moving objects, and animation is much like eye candy — captivating elements that call attention to and help distinguish an app from its competitors.
8. Style Guide
Style guides are becoming a part of the UX design process. It’s very difficult for instance to create a website without the rigour of cataloguing the system in some form of a guide. They are helpful for the internal team as a reference and consistency in future designs. However not all clients are asking for that.
Well, this is an approach I prefer to use while working on new products. The process differs from project to project. It depends on the client’s budget, project terms and client’s needs.
Of course, it might not be ideal, but I am trying to improve it with every new project. So if you feel like sharing your way, or you have any ideas/comments on this, please feel free to use the comments section.
P.S. If you are looking for help to design a mobile/web applications, dont hesitate to reach me out here margoprais.com
