UX Process

Assessing the surface issue received from Business, let's dive deep into it with our Designer hats on, revealing our knowns and unknowns from the get go. Let's make sure to understand the supposed issue at hand, and strategize what we can learn from real users. 

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You strategize what users you'd like to speak with, and what questions to ask them in a candid, non-leading fashion. The participant list is assembled, and interviews scheduled, while interview tests are conducted to make sure the a/v is good to go.

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The interviews are conducted with one interviewer while one or two observers are taking notes so the interviewer can focus on the conversation—ideally, observers are hidden as to have the participant not feel crowded, in order to get quality data from them.

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The observers type frantically into their excel sheet template that was created, so that answers across participants are easily compared.

Look it's all fun, but this is when it really starts to get fun—putting all the utterances onto physical or digital stickies and uncovering themes. What were the things participants said half under their breath or a little harshly, that was strangely a sentiment shared by all of them? 

These are the nuggets that begin to form the first a-ha moments in your designer brain.

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And then after days of moving these stickies around, the true user pain points emerge, far more in-depth than what the Business team alluded to in their initial user story. You and the team realize you could really implement true change to the user experience...IT constraints allowing, of course.

The Design Team agree on a design strategy and roadmap, allowing time for UX copywriting, wireframing, iterating, failing, more wireframing, rapid prototypying, testing, iterating, testing, succeeding, hi-fidelity design, testing, and working alongside IT along the way before the build phase. 

Phew! The strategy was approved, and the team can get right into the wireframes that have been dancing in their heads since the synthesis phase. Drawn with a marker on some sketch paper or on a white board, do this lo-fi. Naturally, knowing what format your users will primarily be using is what you'll start with—mobile or desktop.

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Working in wireframes helps you to move past the wrong paths easily, and without your Business stakeholders getting too attached by seeing what to them look like fully-fleshed out designs if they were hifi. Further, you can draw these up quickly.

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Find what doesn't work quickly, iterate, and wire them into prototypes. Of course depending on time and the complexity of the flows, put the prototypes into some unmoderated survey tests to capture early success rates.

Awesome, we've got some early success with the wireframes we've iterated on, and are ready to start working with our design system. This can help bring a little realism into the flow, and if wired into a prototype can be an exciting update to share up the ladder. Careful though, keep them in black and gray, so it's clear that we're still very much in-progress and under construction.

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Again, testing is appropriate at any phase, so go for it here too if helpful.

This is it. 

The initial levels of approval have been stamped, and it's time to see this baby take true shape. You've already been using design system components in the previous phase, and now just switch the color back on and show off that prototype.

Here it is. It's all led to this.

The hi-fi design is ready in all its glory. You can do one last pass at a test if necessary, and once confident you can have a Design System Rep look over the files to ensure the brand guidelines are in place as far as padding, typefaces, colors, components are working as intended.

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You've been working with IT notified along this whole process, and now you can let them know that it's ready for them to build out. They'll keep you up to date as far as their progress with a launch date in mind.

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Once launched, you can continue to monitor the product's performance, which heat maps do a fantastic job at ensuring users are navigating the product properly.

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You did it. 
Next project.