Design Thinking Complete Process

Question 1

7 UX design process steps

Answer 1

1. Describe personas
2. Build user scenarios
3. Develop information architecture
4. Draw sketches (paper prototypes)
5. Make wireframes
6. Create visual design
7. Evaluate and test design

Question 2

7 UX design process steps - 1. Describe personas

Answer 2

Persona is a collective image of users united by similar goals, priorities, skills, behavior patterns, characteristics, motivations and intents. Usually, it contains a name, picture, occupation, interests or any other relevant information that helps better understand a user.

During UX design process, we analyze and group future system users into segments and build one, two or more personas that represent each segment. This technique allows us to design the system that would address the specific needs of a certain persona and therefore serve the related target audience.

Benefit: Using personas, we ensure the UX we build reflects the goals and requirements of our users and helps us avoid self-referential design. We can personalize UX to these users and focus on solving the challenges relevant to them.

Question 3

7 UX design process steps - 2. Build user scenarios

Answer 3

Now that we have the personas and previously documented system requirements, we can build user scenarios for every goal. Usually, a user scenario consists of short texts sometimes illustrated with images that describe the actions focused on meeting a specific user need. Altogether, these notes combine into a customer journey map and describe the scenarios and journeys of a specific persona.

Benefit: Dynamic and easy to iterate, user scenarios bring users to life and can demonstrate user activity across the whole product or service. Besides, this design technique is ideal for team collaboration.

Question 4

7 UX design process steps - 3. Develop information architecture

Answer 4

• Once we know who our users are and what their needs are, we can move to the next step and build information architecture (IA). Here we determine the information structure for the system — visualize interactions and dependencies between system pages/screens, build a preliminary layout, create content matrices. In other words, we decide and show what will be on different pages or screens of the future system and how they will be connected with each other.
• At this step, we often use such design techniques as free listing and card sorting to build navigation design..
• Benefit: Information architecture gives the first glimpse to the future system look as it allows to build a preliminary layout and determine UX flow.

Question 5

7 UX design process steps - 4. Draw sketches (paper prototypes)

Answer 5

• Paper prototyping is used to make sketches of the future system design with pencils, markers and sticker notes. Paper prototyping is a great UX design technique because it allows to quickly explore different design variants and experiment with design solutions individually or in teams.
• Benefit: Paper prototyping allows to quickly iterate the design at low cost. Moreover, it’s a great collaboration and validation tool. Using large sketch boards, UX groups that consist of designers, developers, project managers and business analysts can work together on the design and see the big picture of the whole system at once.

Question 6

7 UX design process steps - 5. Make wireframes

Answer 6

• The next UX design process steps bring us to a more advanced visualization of the future system. Black and white wireframes demonstrate the interface on individual pages, more accurate layout with elements, labels, interactions and behavior. It does not, however, show UI features like colors and images.
• Often, wireframes can be organized into clickable prototypes using such tools as Marvel or InVision app. These prototypes help test the design at this stage, leave comments and collaborate on improvements before the final design stage.
• Benefit: Wireframes allow to explore and test the flows and functionality of the future system in a simple way. At this step, design teams and decision -makers are not distracted by color schemes, typography and text but rather focus on usability, functionality and smooth experience.

Question 7

7 UX design process steps - 6. Create visual design

Answer 7

• Visual design closes the first cycle of UX design process development. At this stage, we turn black and white wireframes into colorful interfaces that align with the brand’s identity, style, design trends and user expectations.
• Using professional design tools like Figma and Photoshop, we enable collaboration and transparency of UI design process and deliver the mockups for every page, screen, interaction and element. Once approved, the design can be transferred to development teams for implementation. Along with the mockups, designers create a design system or UI kit with responsive rules and other documentation that helps keep the design consistent during further iterations.
• Benefit: UI designs demonstrate the complete interface of the future system. At this step, stakeholders and decision-makers confirm that the system’s look and feel reflect the original project requirements, brand’s image and user expectations.

Question 8

7 UX design process steps - 7. Evaluate and test design

Answer 8

• One of the most important UX process steps is usability testing and evaluation. It can be conducted at various stages of UX development, starting from early prototyping to the final design and after product launch.
  Usability testing is an iterative process that helps designers gather valuable data on how potential users will interact with the system.
• Benefit: Usability testing is an integral part of agile UX design process. It allows design teams to validate design solutions, assess user experience, and get insights for further improvements.

Question 9

What is the card sorting technique? (3. Develop information architecture)

Answer 9

The card sorting technique implies sorting out labeled cards into specific groups. Groups analysis then allows to better understand content categories and user expectations for the system content and navigation.

Question 10

What is free listing? (3. Develop information architecture)

Answer 10

Free listing implies listing similar terms associated with a given topic and analyzing patterns, preferences and expectations for the future content