How do you involve UX principles in your projects when there’s no time for anything but high-fidelity wireframes?

Q&A on Design, Tech, and Startups

Q: I’ve worked at startup where deadlines have been extremely tight, like 2 days. In those situations it was difficult to justify taking the time to go through the entire UX process, and we would usually have to skip straight to wireframing with specs handed down from the PM. There wasn’t even time for testing and iterating. In a tight deadline it’s difficult to do any semblance of research or testing, and designers are left to put on their assumption hat and just make their best guess or simply follow best practices, which may or may not be appropriate for the situation. How do you involve UX principles in your projects when there’s no time for anything but high-fidelity wireframes?

A:
Digital products and apps are never done and the feature design process is continuous and iterative. Given your circumstances, consider detaching research and testing from your 2-day design window. Focus on designing interactions and interfaces and execute well in that given time-frame. Conduct research later.

Essentially, design and ship the feature. Then set up time to test and get feedback. Log the feedback and use those insights to refine your design on your next iteration cycle — this time, it’ll be user-focused and backed by research.

I also wanted to touch on the notion of designers making their best guess. I’m not opposed to this. I believe it’s a designers job to absorb and understand the given industry they’re working in as much as possible. Building up knowledge of the user and customer base is part of this work.

There’s a range of ways to learn more about your users and utilize the insights in your design process. It can be done through weekly usability sessions, where customers are invited on-site to test-drive a feature or just answer questions. It could be site visits (ethnographic studies), going out to watch or talk to users. It could even be listening in on sales or customer services calls. Learning about your users should be on-going and, over time, this will provide a depth of understanding that makes your guesses, less like guesses, and more like data informed decisions.

D E N Y

Looking for answers on design in tech and startups?
Post your question in the comments or email me: deny @ 8VC.com