Our UX Process

During the initial phase, it’s crucial for me to precisely identify the scope and purpose of the project. Why is the development of this product necessary? Who is the intended audience? What specific business challenges will this product address?

This discussion commonly occurs through stakeholder meetings, establishing a foundational framework that aligns with the overarching business strategy.

Based on the outcomes of these initial meetings, I write a requirements document with input and data from the different stakeholders sometimes with a rudimentary conceptual sketch. These resources provide a fundamental framework that will guide the subsequent stages of development.

During this phase, I conduct research to better understand the user and their requirements. This research aids in developing a sense of empathy for the users and in discerning their expectations from the product or service. Cultivating empathy is a pivotal aspect of a human-centered design approach.

This phase sometimes encompasses both user research and market research. User research can manifest in various forms, including interviews, surveys, focus groups, usability lab observations, user task analyses, card sorting, customer journey mapping, analyzing web analytics, and field research. Meanwhile, market research delves into aspects like industry trends and competitive analysis.

In the planning phase, we take all of the information gathered in the research stage and start to plan out how we’ll meet the defined user needs. I might develop user personas, empathy maps,  user stories, concept wireframes, or other high-level plans during this phase depending on identified need.

This is also the time when we start to think about how the product will be built and what technologies will be necessary.

Once I have a good understanding of the users and a plan to move forward, I create a content map that describes the navigation categories, the flow of pages from that, and I also note any sub-content such as forms, interactive elements, media, and modal overlays. Then I sketch the pages in annotated wireframes. I create the layout of each page or screen, navigation, and specific elements on each screen.
I always take into consideration all technical specifications from the developers for this step. I should be able to prove to the team that my content map and wires track back to the analysis & planning work we did and that my designs are purposeful, insight driven and user-centered.

This design phase is a highly collaborative phase between art, copy and UX. Here are the main areas of this work:

Information architecture – (Story outline, Categories, Taxonomy, Detailed site/content map)

Wireframes

Manuscript & UX Microcopy

Layout

Prototyping allows me to present a simple interactive experience for usability testing and/or for presenting to the client for feedback, which can help deliver more accurate feedback.

Prototypes can be low-fi or hi-fi so this phase can come as interactive wireframes or a high fidelity prototype.

Usability testing helps identify any areas that need improvement before the final product goes live. You can get valuable feedback with no more than five users. I have used surveys, interview questions and example scenarios for the user to test to capture feedback.

After testing sessions, I evaluate feedback and implement the relevant changes.

Once the testing is complete and all of the necessary changes have been made, I create functional specifications. A “func spec” describes interactions, modals, media, navigation, anything that has functionality in the project so that the developers knows exactly what to build. Then we hand over a build kit with all assets to the development team. I am work with the developers, answer questions and have check-ins to ensure we agree on direction.