I’ve heard a lot of people discuss – animatedly – what the best process is for ensuring a successful user experience. Honestly, I don’t believe there is a single process that works for all projects. As an experience designer, I have a toolbox full of techniques that I can apply to various situations.
Research
I use a variety of techniques to better understand your users. My favorite way to get started is to get an understanding of any baselines for your industry through assessing the competitive landscape and analyzing any available market research. If it makes sense for your project, we might also conduct a contextual evaluation – this is an ethnographic form of research in which we talk to real-life users in a one-on-one setting. Sometimes it is also useful to synthesize our understanding of your consumers into personas (archetypal representations of your targeted customers) and scenarios (illustrations of common workflows and tasks for your target audience).
Each of these research techniques provides a solid foundation for the strategy and design decisions that are to come.
Strategize
Strategy is the time in the project where we take everything we know and decide what to do with it. Some of the things we consider are:
- Our research (see above)
- Your business goals
- User needs and expectations
- The content we have to offer (or want to offer)
- Technical concerns
- Timelines and budget
- Your brand
- Other marketing/ advertising efforts
- …and anything else that needs to be thrown into the mix.
Given all this information, we need to come up with the main idea that describes what we’re trying to do. Further details might come in the form of feature lists, product roadmaps and release schedules, detailed project plans, creative direction, and even high-level design concepts.
Design and Implement
After the strategy is agreed on, the next step is to put together a more detailed design. My specialty is information architecture and interaction design, which result in a set of wireframes that describe your product’s display and interaction in detail.
Depending on the audience for this documentation, it is sometimes useful to elaborate on the wireframes with a complete set of business requirements and functional specifications.
Even after the design documentation is complete, I frequently work with visual design or technology development teams to ensure that the strategic vision is carried through to the final product.
Review and Refine
A good process uses iterations to continually improve the design. While in the strategy and design phases, it is important to show the product to users for feedback, whether in a formal usability test setting or through quick reviews.
After the product goes live, ongoing touchpoints with users are critical to ensure that the product stays competitive. Social media monitoring can also be used to understand community reactions.
Inspire
I’m available for speaking and teaching engagements. I can also help to motivate teams on the topic of user experience design, giving them a start on the tools they need to incorporate user-centered design into their practice.