The process of UX Design changes in detail from organization to organization, but many of the core elements need to be present in order to best meet user expectations- or to delight users with a quality experience.
Of course, there are multiple facets here, and depending on the organization and team structures, variance occurs in the details.
This is one thing Drew is very good at – recognizing the structure of the team and tailoring communication to be as effective as possible to the audience and the timing of this communication.
Whether we need to stay high-level and business-focused or to perform a deep dive into technical weeds to ensure the technology investments get their pay-off. The point of these discussions is to call out the most important factors to consider throughout the design and build process.
Things like Contextual design factor in nicely here where we spend more time and attention to data collection and interpretation- but effectively, the process follows the same tenants described here.
Kick off with Strategy elements
Here's where we identify and clarify the brand, establish guiding principles, and confirm the vision of the organization.
We lay out the strategy that will guide the whole project and define how success will be measured among all factors of the effort.
Drew's work here is to help steer these conversations and to capture, consolidate, and confirm agreement so that decisions are confirmed before moving forward.
Next, we look at Research and get things rolling.
This phase is all about gathering all the data we will use to put the designs together and be sure we hit the mark. It's often referred to as "Discovery" and this is a great and accurate term to describe the process.
Here, Drew has hands-on experience conducting primary research as well as digesting secondary sources to help solidify a deep understanding of the users involved with this effort's output.
After this, we do Analysis where we draw insights based on our Research. Once we know the "what" of our research step, we can start to draw some "why"s based on our analysis.
Now we hit the Design phase - the part many outside our profession believe is the first and only step.
Here we dig in and implement sketches based on discussions and feedback from members of all the teams and representatives from actual users. Drew's hands-on design experience ensures that the team's production output is fast, consistent, and clear.
We refine these design elements based both on feedback and on testing to confirm and refine our understanding from the previous steps.
Next, things get built in the Production phase.
Developers can leverage the design assets we produce using some fantastic software tools. We can export assets they can use right off the tap- or by simple adjustments from the design's screens and clickable prototypes.
On our final iteration, we will Launch to production... but here in the first pass, we do a Beta Launch. This gives us an opportunity to see the product in a production-like environment where we can hit it with all kinds of crazy scenarios.
Testing gets done in our Evaluation phase. We will have shown designs to some users and key outside players, but now we have the chance to run our designs through the wringer.
Drew's testing experience ensures that test results reveal new learnings or missed opportunities we can address in the next revision. Most importantly, we answer the question; "did we hit the marks set during the Strategy phase"?
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Next, there are usually multiple loops back through the design cycle. Parts get pared off to create a minimal viable product, then we loop back through the design cycles to validate or revise understandings and then re-tool parts of the design assets.
It's best to go through these loops quickly, but not so quickly that key lessons are missed and insights don't have enough time to emerge. Drew's experience shows that the best teams leverage the advantage of working with "wet paint" to ply in improvements to the design.
Finally, we Launch and move on to the next project, taking with us knowledge and insights gained to make the next one even better. In Drew's experience, it is well worth taking the time to review with teammates and business leadership to confirm the successes and document any shortcomings so we can focus future efforts on avoiding repeated missteps.
