Noted: UX is not an ingredient
At Policygenius, we’re trying to make sure our product (UX) design team is more heavily involved in our planning process, so I’ve recently been doing research on how to more accurately estimate product (UX) design work.
In the past, our engineering team has always been looped into the project planning process to both give insights and opinions into an idea, and help estimate how much work it would take to bring that idea to life. Then it was given to the design team so they could e̶s̶t̶i̶m̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶x̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶ be told how long they have to design something.
So, what’s the problem? The product (UX) design work that will go into the project is being treated as an afterthought; an ingredient that can just be tossed in at the end of a recipe. That’s why I want to praise the website UX Recipe which I came across while searching for guidelines on estimating design work.
Essentially, UX Recipe is a tool for freelancers to use to both help estimate what they should charge their clients as well as outline all the work that goes into designing something. It forces their clients to treat design as the complex process that is is, rather than just an ingredient.
