design process

Creativity, empathy, communication and research are core elements to my design process. Outside of that, I make sure to keep my process flexible in order to adapt to new projects, teams and environments. 

Understand

The first step is to understand the project I am tackling. What is the product or service? What is this industry like? Who is the customer? Who is the user? What are their obstacles, needs and desires? What is the goal of the project? These are all questions that I begin to answer through research, user interviews and discussions with the client.

identify the problem

After understanding the project, and the users, I use the insights I’ve gathered to determine the core problem.

IDEATE

Every problem can have multiple solutions, to find the most appropriate solution I use a variety of tool, research methods and brainstorming exercises. Personas, empathy maps and user journey maps are vital tools at this step and serve as a useful reminder of the user’s obstacles, needs and desires. Some other methods I use to ideate include: lightning demos, user interviews, crazy eights and market research.

Evaluate

Before commencing development, I make sure to always ask does the proposed solution solves the problem. I find my answers to this through user interviews, paper prototyping, team discussions and personal judgment. Depending on the project I find it useful to use paper prototyping to get a better understanding of how the user would interact with the potential solution.

prototype

The prototyping stage includes user flows, paper prototypes, wireframes, mid and high fidelity prototypes. Between each iteration I make sure to test it’s functionality and seek feedback on the design.

test

To spot problems, check usability, eliminate bias and reveal areas of improvement, I make sure to test the proposed design solution. This is done through a series of usability tests, and demos with the client. At this stage it is also crucial to check the accessibility of the design to ensure that the product or service is accessible to all users and customers.

Analyze and improve

At this stage I gather and analyze the insights from the tests to determine what needs to be removed, improved or added. While analyzing the insights, I look specifically for usability and accessibility issues to determine what is most urgent for that iteration of the design.

DeliverY

Once I arrive at a solution that answers the core problem, it is time for delivery. To make the transition from design to development smooth I make sure to create a design library and maintain constant communication with developers and project managers throughout my design process.