Think it. Action it. Feel it. Repeat it.

I’d much rather make informed decisions on-the-go because let’s face it, life is unpredictable. As a designer, I find myself doing this on a daily basis.

When I started my design career, I planned EVERYTHING! I went into a molecular level of detail, trying to identify anything that could possibly go wrong. I attempted to solve every design problem up-front, which meant that projects took ages to kick off. This instilled a fear of failure into my design process, causing me to stall.

Think it.

In the Agile process, there is a methodology based around ‘failing fast’. Failing is a dirty word, right? Well, not really, it’s actually the opposite. As soon as we acknowledge failure, we can focus on crafting better experiences.

Think about the flow of the experience and plan what is required for baseline functionality. Start this process on paper or a collaborative diagram creation software like Lucidchart. This will give you the freedom to shuffle user flows and content quickly and easily while you design.

Action it.

‘Failing fast’ means that designers should always avoid the detail on their first pass. Paint the broad brush strokes to wrangle the entire experience into a low-fidelity prototype — rather than a single polished feature. After all, what good does a single, extremely polished, fully animated feature do when your content doesn’t flow well?

It is important that you maintain momentum in this process. Always work towards a prototype that puts your ideas into action and demonstrates the entire experience. In some cases, the online prototyping tool, InVision is a great way to demonstrate the flow and baseline functionality of a product, but it is often more beneficial to dive straight into the development of a fully functioning product — it may not look pretty, but it allows us to experience the content flow and functionality.

Feel it.

Now that you feel the product as a user, be critical! This is your chance to take your designer hat off and really analyse it as a whole.

Ask yourself the following questions while experiencing the product:

Do you understand what is happening?

Do know where you are in the midst of the experience?

Do you have control over the actions you want to perform?

Do parts of the experience frustrate you?

Take notes on your experience with the product and prepare to address the concerns.

Repeat it.

Be prepared to admit where your product can be improved so you can pivot your thinking accordingly. This is an iterative process — each time you repeat it your product will improve drastically before you’ve burnt your budget on a feature that might not even make it to the final version.

Loop back to the start of the process, think it, and make a plan for improving the experience.

Make amazing.

Once you’ve nailed the requirements in a functioning baseline experience, you will have visibility over all content and user interface requirements, giving you the focus to make amazing!

Don’t waste time planning for things out of your control — implement a reactive workflow that allows you to feel your experience as early as possible. Don’t be afraid of failing, it is actually just a step in the design process. Cop it on the chin — be brutally honest and pivot when necessary, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad designer if you don’t hit the mark the first time. I’ll let you in on a secret… no good designers ever do.