InVision’s Research Design Process For Blog Posts
Design processes can be used for more than just designs. Many processes follow the simple steps of asking a question to initiate the process, research the topic, refine the project, and finalize. This process not only makes it easy to stay on track and complete a project in order but it also allows for the best possible outcome in the end.
In this blog post, I will look at an article by InVision and find out how they used a design process to create their blog post.
The Blog Post: https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/supercharge-collaboration-hybrid-work/
Asking the Question
Although it may not be the most obvious, this blog post does in fact start by posing a question. It may not be in words, it may not be a bold headline, but to come up with the concept for the blog post, someone had to pose a question. In this instance, how do we supercharge collaboration? Or, how do we explain to others how to supercharge collaboration? See, we don’t know what exactly they asked but regardless, the process tells us that there was a reason for the creation of this blog post.
Becoming Familiar
After you know what you are working on, you need to build your knowledge on the subject. For design, you want to learn everything about the client, the topic, and the design to ensure the final product will be exactly how they want it. InVision became familiar with their topic by researching the information they were going to discuss. They started by researching the problem in which they opened the blog post with a graph related to the problem of office occupancy rate slowing climbing after a massive drop.
Roughs and Refinement
After the research is done, you then need to create your rough drafts, sketches, or whatever you want to call them. For design, you choose what idea of ideas you are going to go forward with and you begin to refine them. This can be things like changing the color, adding or removing lines and shapes, or moving and rearranging. In term of a blog post, we know that to create a professional post free of error, InVision must proofread their post, spellcheck, and read it over to make sure they catch any errors and that it is still legible. This process can be quick or short, but it doesn’t matter because nothing will ever be perfect and the fewer mistakes made, the more professional it appears.
InVisioning the Final Product
Once you feel the mistakes are all taken care of, and every minor detail is added or removed, then it’s time to finalize. In design, this would consist of testing the design to see if it works and meets the needs of the client. This then can go a couple different ways. Either it's perfect and you’re done, but that's unlikely. Next, you might only have a few minor details to finish meeting the needs of the client. Or, you could need to go back and choose a new idea to go forward with. Then there is always the option that you will need to start all over to create something completely different. Creating a blog post like InVision is both similar and different. Of course, it needs to be double-checked before publishing but not in the same way. For design, the client is most likely a true client whereas the client for the blog post is the reader. In this instance, you need to make sure all the information will meet the needs of the intended audience. But, the difference is that you probably won't need to recreate the entire blog post AFTER reaching the final step.
The design processes that we use as designers and artists aren’t exclusive to just “art.” The processes are very straightforward and helpful so they can fit many different scenarios. The processes are just meant to help the person using them to create a working final product.
