the design process

When you want to create…

something or if you want to solve a problem, the steps towards the results
may not be clear at first. The purpose of a design process is to shape and guide your efforts and thinking towards improving the outcome.

design

How I do it

DESIGN = PROBLEM SOLVING

The first step: identifying and understanding the problem. I want to make sure that I am thoroughly informed about the problem so that I can accurately pursue solutions.

I dedicate the beginning of the project to meeting with internal stakeholders, understanding the target customer, familiarizing myself with the industry and competitors — collecting as many insights as I can.

These insights form a solid base the plan for whole project. Trying to solve the wrong problem leads to wasting resources.

The plan is then defined for the second step, strategy.

Am I solving for one main problem? Several? What relevant content should they be presented with in order to lead them to reach their goals using the product?

User stories and journey maps define how the people would interact with the product. We plan the structure and catalog the content that will be published, making sure it responds to use cases and scenarios.

Having planned the priorities in the previous step, I start working through a broad range of solutions in the execution phase, validating each of them, looking for the best approach.

I align with developers to ensure that the solutions can be built with the available resources. I translate my wireframes to a prototype to put in front of users in order to test their validity.

Adjust and then proceed to the visual design phase while elaborating the style guides and specifications for the project.

The client communication style and the development workload determines the handoff process.

Once everything has been worked through, presented, finalized, I’m taking a support role during the development process. I make myself available to project managers and developers so we can ship successfully and on time.

It often happens that the solution you seek to implement would only manage to aleviate the symptoms of a deeper pain.
Allow me to explore that pain and cure it properly.

steps

The US.E.R. process

01.Understand

Why are we doing this?

As a UX consultant, my first step is always about gaining perspective & knowledge.

I know nothing about your business. And that’s a good thing because I dig deep to gather everything that can help us craft the best possible solution.

If we can’t offer value to the client we can’t expect engagement, let alone pay. Therefore, understanding user’s needs and their behavior is the core of this process.

Why would they buy your project? What need does it meet or which pain does it alleviate?

I want to uncover how your business works, what is the company’s vision and what are the current project’s goals.

What differenciates you on the market? What is your WHY?

How would the product perform on the market and among its competitors? What are its strenghts and weaknesses? How should we present it so we can improve its chances of success?

How does it perform now? What feedback do we have from current customers?

Are there key functionalities that we should prioritize?

What expectations do people have when it comes to a product from this industry? What are the key benefits that they are after? Where shoul you position your offering in their minds for optimum impact?

02.Strategy

How will we do it?

We draw insights from the research data and craft a product roadmap that solves problems like no other existing products. We choose the most effective way to solve your problem or reach your goal.
This leads to increased usability and findability and shapes data hierarchy of digital products.

We define the key performace indicators for the project, the steps that will allow us to bring the product forward to the customers and how they can make the most of.
What motivates the end client to use your product? How should we shape the content and flow so that it’s intuitive and easy to explore, buy and use it?

Which are the exact functionalities and flows that the users should follow to accomplish their goals using your product?

How do they find out about your product? What happens when they need support from your team? How about when they suggest a new functionality that could boost your sales?

We organize the content to intuitively guide users in performing a desired action seamlessly.

03.Execution

What should we deliver?

What problems do we have to solve? How should we guide the user? What should we display and in what order? What’s the best way to formulate the content? How would the whole journey look like?

We simplify the story that specifically focuses on prioritization of content, functionalities and behaviors.

We simplify the story that specifically focuses on prioritization of content, functionalities and behaviors.

We simplify the story that specifically focuses on prioritization of content, functionalities and behaviors.

We simplify the story that specifically focuses on prioritization of content, functionalities and behaviors.

We test the product by creating a usable mockup for initial feedback.

04.Review

Does it work? Let’s test it!

I cannot guarantee your product’s success (nobody can).

But we can test and iterate it until it product-market fit is confirmed.

We test the product by creating a usable mockup for initial feedback.

We adjust based on testing results

We give life to designs by adding visually appealing elements that evoke emotions.

Design systems with colors, typography, icons and images, animations, transitions between screens, microinteractions.

While I don’t handle development I am available for clairifcations, details, and adjustments if necessary. In my experience the dev team works as another layer of testing and quality assurance when it comes to product design.

questions

Need more clarity?

Get in touch, ask away

[wpforms id=”14954″ title=”false” description=”false”]

I’m not an agency. You talk to one person.

how can I help?

Create, Improve and Scale. I’m here at every step.

The main steps and my design process