My UX Design Process

When considering what my design process is, I think about the steps I take to achieve solutions that make sense. Usually the pattern I follow is something like this: Research — Ideate — Design .

The Double Diamond vs. The Figure 8

Some people like to think of the design process as a kind of double diamond. Two diamonds side-by-side: the first represents the Research phase and the second signifies the Design phase. In the middle of the two diamonds, at the point where they connect or perhaps forming its own mini-diamond, the Ideation phase.

Moving forward in space, a diamond starts with one point, expands in the middle, and ends at one point farther along. In the UX process, we begin at one point with a problem statement, a concept; moving forward we expand outward into the wider space of discovery and possibility, then continuing on the process narrows again into a coalesced point of synthesized research, or into a viable prototype.

I like to visualize the process as a kind of figure-8. As a symbol of fluidity and return, a figure-8 better represents the way you’re always returning to the research, to the problem statements, to the business requirements, and honing designs accordingly. Even after the research phase ends, and you’re well into the design phase, you’re still returning to the research, and continuing to research with usability tests. Figure-8s also represent the idea of synthesizing and reiterating on any given idea, something we do in UX all the time.

My UX Process as it might look in a real project

Say the problem statement is something like “With new online classroom tools, teachers send out all their assignments digitally but they aren’t always sure that all the students have received them. How might we help teachers communicate assignments and enable them to see which students have read their assignment and which have not?”

Research

1. Before anything, begin with an initial problem statement. Note the assumptions I have about the project going in.
2. Begin with the question: how do teachers hand out assignments and get feedback from students in the real world?
3. Continue with research. Interview teachers. Interview students. What are their habits? What are their concerns? Learn about the kind of technology they use. Conduct field trips to schools.
4. Study similar products already on the market. Research products that might do something similar in a different space. Perform heuristic analysis of the other sites. Recognize the digital language already in place that could help us leverage potential solutions. Perhaps do usability studies of competitor products to see what works and what falls short.
5. Synthesize the research into information about the users, what have I learned about needs, pain points, goals and their daily lives that can help me define a series of actual problems to solve for? If the research has not unlocked anything really valuable, rethink the research and start again.

Ideate

1. Create personas of our various users from the information the synthesis unlocked. Include their needs, goals and pain points; relevant information about their lives: how much time do they have to learn new technology? What technology do they already use and feel comfortable with? What’s important to them? Go further into the user’s needs if necessary: create a user journey to figure out where in her daily experience the app can solve problems she faces.
2. Define a primary persona: who am I actually designing for?
3. Revise the problem statement and assumptions, using the synthesized research and user personas as the basis for the updated statements.
4. Conduct a feature analysis to define features for an MVP release: what’s a must-have feature? What’s a should-have, a could-have, a nice-to have? Consider real-world constraints that could make these features impossible or too difficult for a first release candidate.
5. Go into a design studio to generate possible ideas — draw out screens and ideas and decide on the best path forward to solve the problems I’ve uncovered.

Design

1. Create task flows, user flows and low-fidelity wireframes.
2. Test the wireframes with real people to validate that the designs make sense.
3. Based on the results of the tests, iterate on the designs. Retest.
4. Create mid-fidelity wireframes.
5. Again test the wireframes, and iterate where elements and flows are not working.
6. Create high-fidelity mockups and a prototype.
7. Continue with usability tests with the target users: in this case, teachers. Present them with scenarios they can relate to, and tasks that will take them through the site or app. Check to see how easily they performed the tasks: were they able to achieve what they needed to or were the flows and screen elements confusing? Did the experience delight them or did they feel it made them unhappy? Ask them to rate their experience.
8. Continue to make tweaks to the prototype if necessary until we arrive at an MVP for the present release.