Designing singular and accumulated experiences for users through user interface interactions.
THE BRIEF
"Failure is an integral part of the search."
— Steve Blank
User research
First, understand the problem. Identify what is being solved, for whom, and what the expected results are.
Next, define the project scope. What do we think we're building, and how much of it. Develop a research hypothesis and create proto-customer journeys, personas, and mental models.
Conduct a content audit (if there is an existing product, or if I'm coming in to a project already in motion). Validate your findings through user interviews and questionnaires.
Finally, synthesize the findings into usable, sharable formats (the proto artifacts).
Product strategy
Define brand values. Conduct a competitor and value proposition analysis. Build user personas and create detailed user profiles (Value proposition canvas)
Perform thematic analysis and cognitive mapping. Prioritize features based on your findings (affinity mapping). Synthesize the data (put like responses into logical groups) and generate insights (the new educated hypotheses to validate during user testing, stakeholder feedback, SMEs, etc...)
Design
Information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, Creation of design system, style guide, component library creation. Content strategy, and finally visual design (some design options for stakeholder feedback).
User testing
Design validation tests; task scenarios, and performance metrics (e.g. task completion percentage/time, qualitative feedback), usability testing, and A/B testing.
Update the customer journey, personas, and cognitive models based on your findings. Iterate and redesign as needed, within the constraints of time and budget.
Implementation
Collaborating with team, writing users stories, job stories, prioritizing ui components, screens to design, design reviews with development.
CONCLUSION
Each project is different. I can't say this is how it always goes, but this is the game plan I can always look to for guidance. Each project success and failure brings with it a valuable lesson that I take to the following project.
