Designing a website or an application could be a daunting task for many designers, especially if you are working on a large project and you are not sure which design process to follow to deliver a successful digital product. Many designers rely on their own work experience, industry trends or depend on design methods, learned earlier in education, in the books or on the internet. The design process differs from one designer to another and it can be widely flexible among them. Every designer uses their own methods to solve simple and complex problems. Therefore, there isn’t a single common process to follow, but rather multiple ideas that can help guide your project along the way.
In this hypothetical casework example, I will walk you through design stages that have worked for me and helped me to deliver the final product. This design process is an ideal scenario to get the best results, but it can depend on the client’s budget and time, therefore it may have to be adapted accordingly.
Every project is different, this is why I would start by evaluating and assessing the project complexity. Overviewing the project should give a good indication of the resources and time needed to design the product.
Once the overview is complete, I can move onto the design process. The aim is to understand better what the users need and make sure these needs are considered throughout the entire design process, whether it is a simple website or a complex application.
The process can be split into 4 stages that can be summarised under these titles:
Discovery
The learning
The first stage will focus on getting familiar with the project, product, and users. It consists in research methods that help learn about the product and end-users in depth. The purpose of doing the research stage is to get a well-rounded and in-depth understanding of the goals, scope, and limitations of the product. This stage allows me to define the direction, and see potential roadblocks and risks in later stages.
This method is also known as User Experience Design (UX). It helps us understand how people are going about their digital tasks and what is important for them as well as figuring out their behaviours, needs, and motivations.
Turning research into practical information
Later in the process, this information could be turned into smart design decisions. There are many research methods such as Card Sorting, Focus Groups, Interviews, Prototyping, Surveys, and more. The benefits of conducting such research can define the overall success of your final product and can also be used to improve existing product conversion rates, sign-ups, customer satisfaction, purchase rates, brand loyalty, and more. One example of such a method would be creating User Personas:
User Personas – A way to build fictional users to understand who you are designing for. The demographics, occupations, interests, age, people needs and wants, their expectations and more.
Key Findings
After conducting research, the information can be turned into summarised analysis and can be presented in a form of a report. These findings will assist and support design decisions throughout the later stages of the product design. It will also help to build a solid foundation for the project and guide through the design decisions like a north star.
Ideation
This is where design strategy, project solutions and concepts are formed
After analysis, we can move on to brainstorming sessions with project stakeholders. This stage can include product strategy, mind-maps, concepts, low-fidelity wireframe sketches or any other design practice to help build a solid project foundation and design strategy.
The strategy
When users needs, business values, goals and technical capabilities meet, – the strategy appears. This is when your project strategy is formed.
The Mood board
A collection of assets and materials intended to communicate the style, voice, direction, and language of the product.
Site map
The site-map defines the relationship of everything on a site or on an application. The-site map structure should be clear and logical for the end-users.
User Flow example
Development
This is where it all comes together
At this step, it all comes together. After validating idea(s) in the previous stage, I will visualise the concept using design tools such as Adobe Experience (XD), Sketch, Figmma, etc. This is when I dive deep into User Interface (UI) design, high-fidelity wireframes, site elements, graphics, images, typography, user journeys and more.
Usability testing
Running usability testing will allow me to see how people find the product. Testing new ideas quickly and often will help improve the product, and by doing it often will lead to better design decisions and a better user experience at the end.
Mobile
Desktop, Tablet
Grid
Fonts and typography
Icons and symbols
CTA buttons and site extras
Colour guide and images
Refinement
Final design iterations and user testing
The final stage involves running multiple design reviews and one more user testing. It’s important that the prototype is shared with all stakeholders. It’s a good time to request feedback on the prototype and to find what can be improved, removed or added, followed by another round of high-fidelity designs.
Using these design phases will ensure a smooth development process, however, in many projects, changes may occur along the way. For example, you may be asked to add a new feature on the website, or the delivery time may have to be shortened, etc.
By following this design process, every single stage is an important step forward that will help to produce work methodically while referring to the design process as a compass.
If you need any help regarding product design or if you want to enquire – contact me at: tadas.guobuzas@gmail.com
