My Design Process
1. Planning
Whether I'm designing a new product feature, improving an existing feature, or coming up with an entirely new product all together, my design process always begins with determining the scope of the project. This entails what is essentially a Q&A with the stakeholders, where I can begin to map out the project, getting answers to the following questions:
- What problem(s) are we trying to solve?
- What is the business objective?
- What are the necessary features?
- Who is the target market?
- What does the competitive landscape look like?
- What is our timeframe?
- What resources do we have to work with (developers, designers, etc.)?
2. Research
Once we have a clear idea of the scope of the project, I do a deep-dive into the competition's offerings. How do they approach the problem or challenge we're looking to address? As I review the competing products and features, I take copious notes on what works well, what doesn't and what's missing. Depending on the nature of the project I'm working on, I often extend my research beyond the competition, considering entirely different types of products and applications, and examining how they address similar challenges.
3. Brainstorming
With a clear sense of the competitive landscape, along with a growing confidence with regard to how we might improve upon what's currently out there, I like to revisit the project scope to confirm or update the feature requirements as needed and prioritize accordingly.
4. Concepting
By the time that I'm starting to concept, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to build. My design strategy is driven by a set of guidelines that dictate how I approach every new product or feature. These guidelines require me to keep solutions simple, stay focused on the user experience, listen objectively to constructive feedback and most importantly - execute quickly. I do all my concepting in Photoshop. I start with two screenshots – one of a blank browser window and one of a blank mobile phone screen. This keeps me focused on a responsive design approach right from the start of any new project, and saves me the headache of creating something wonderful for desktop/laptop use and then pulling my hair out as I try to make it work for mobile. I often draw from my own inspiration library – a collection of design elements, ui treatments, interactions and other features that delight me and/or impress me in some way. This help to prime the creative pump and keep me thinking outside the box.
5. Feedback
Once I have design prototypes to review, we reconvene with the stakeholders to discuss the solution and assess whether it successfully addresses the objectives of the project. If it does, we move forward with final interaction screens and and product specs. and hand off to the development team.
6. Q/A
When the development process is complete, we review the work on the dev/test server and review the design along with the interactions, taking note of any inconsistencies and tweaking the interactions as needed.
7. Push
Go live!
Iterate and improve as needed!