UI/UX : User Experience (UX) Design Process

What is User Experience (UX)?

                          

“The User Experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use and efficiency.” -Wikipedia

In the simplest terms, UX Design (UXD) is about making the user’s experience with the product the best it can be. It aims to attract people to a site they are interested in; then, once they are there, to make their journey from the homepage to purchasing the product (careerfoundry).

Developing a user experience to the level of customer satisfaction is not a single person or team’s responsibility, instead it is a company’s vision (UX Planet).

 

Why is User Experience Important?

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”- Steve Job

UXD has a central focus on the user: creating and delivering value and satisfying wants and needs (Maze). Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers and creators when creating and refining products because negative user experience can diminish the use of the products and, therefore any desired positive impacts (Wikipedia). But the benefits go far beyond the users, as UX design is becoming increasingly instrumental in delivering value to the business as well (Maze).

Based on careerfoundry The goals of UX design include :

1. To understand the goals and context-of-use of potential users or customers 

2. To use that understand to design a product, service, or app within the constraints of  business and technology

The first thing a UX designer thinks about is how to align the goals of the user with the goals of the business. E.g. If a user’s goal is to buy a product, then the business goal needs to be making that purchase a useful, usable and delightful action. 

Useful : You need to solve a user’s need; a problem that users actually have 

Usable : Usability needs to be clear so that users understand your product/service 

Delightful: it's not a bad thing if a user enjoys using your product

User Experience (UX) Design Process

Based on UX Planet, User experience design process is an iterative method that helps you continuously improve and polish your designs. In the process, you go through different stages repeatedly while evaluating your design in each stage. Below is the detail that highlights stakeholder involved, activities being done and outcomes produced during each stage of the process. 

1. Understand 

Design solves a problem. In order to provide a solution, you need to understand the problem. “Before beginning the design work, let your design team understand the requirements clearly”.

To analyze requirements, follow industry standard user research methods including contextual and individual interviews, while observing the users in a real environment. “To be a great designer, you need to look a little deeper into how people think and act.” -Pauk

Stakeholders

• Design Team

• Business Manager

• Product Manager 

Activities

• Meet, talk, observe and understand users in their environment 

• Analyze requirement to understand and clarify them 

• Define user personas and use-case

Outcomes

• User Personas

• User Stories

• Use Cases and User Flows

    (User Persona)

2. Research

Research is the basic key step to design user experience. “It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds” - Paula Scher. Design team does their research work to explore how the outer world is working on such features. Sherif Amin, Product Designer, called it UX Competitive Analysis. He listed three purposes of this analysis:  

1. Understand market competition

2. Learn about your domain 

3. Get inspirations and ideas from your competitors

Keep an eye on the latest UI trends, design principles and your existing user experience guidelines. While doing research, start thinking about possible layouts and options to provide the desired experience.

Stakeholders

Design Team

Activities 

• Study of competitors’ approaches 

• Research on similar features in the world 

• Analysis of latest UI/UX trends, design principles and rules 

• Keep an eye your own UX guidelines

Outcomes 

A bunch of ideas and material on which you can build your actual design work 

(Collect ideas Related to Require Feature)

3. Sketch 

This stage involves UI definition of required features. Design team drives this  activity which is based on the last two stages of the process. Draw paper sketches, white board flows and wireframes to share your ideas with stakeholders. This stage itself is an iterative process. “Designing is not something that you just create and start using it. Draw and draft and redraw and redraft, thus creating an unmatched experience”. Testing and evaluation of wireframes is part of this stage. Design team builds initial mockups and shares with stakeholders to get their input. Throughout the process, it is important to keep your goal in mind - make a usable design to achieve end user satisfaction. 

Stakeholders 

• Design Team 

• Product Managers 

• Technical Experts

Activities 

• Generate ideas and work on basic sketches 

• Brainstorming sessions with stakeholders to get their feedback from technical perspective 

• Re-draw sketches and re-test them with stakeholders

Outcomes 

• Sketches 

• Wireframes, Mockups

• User Flows 

(Sketch, Wireframe and User flows)

4. Design 

Now you have finalized the layout and flow of the required interface with you, the next step is to work on final graphics. Turn the initial mockups and wireframes to great-looking images with themes and styles applied to them. Preparing and sharing of design specifications (principles, guidelines, colors, typography, iconography) to the Development team is also part of this stage.  

Stakeholders

• Design Team 

• Product Managers 

• Business Manager 

• Technical Experts 

Activities 

• Design UI images 

• Define final theme, specs, and guidelines required for implementation 

• Design icons to display on screens 

• Sessions with stakeholders to get their feedback from business and technical perspective 

Outcomes 

• Design images 

• Detailed design specs likes colors, theme, styles, guidelines 

• Icons

(UI Style guide)

5. Implement

Since technical people participate in early stages of the process, they can start implementation while the Design phase is in progress. Development team builds back end functionality first and connects it with UI when they get design artifacts. It is better for the Design team involved in this step to help the development phase. While implementing, it is possible to raise the need for minor changes in design. 

Stakeholders 

• Development team 

• Design Team 

Activities 

• Implement back-end functionality and front interface

Outcomes 

Developed UI with complete functionality and experience following the designed theme and style.

6. Evaluate

When product features are implemented, the end product is evaluated based on few factors: 

• Whether the system is usable? 

• Is it easy to use for the end user? 

• Is it flexible and easy to change?

• Does it provide the desired solution to user’s problems? 

• Does the product have the credibility that makes someone want to use it because of the experience it provides? 

“Design team validates the product in terms of user flow and experience and identify areas where improvements are needed”

Stakeholders

• Design Team 

• Product Manager 

Activities 

• Go through the flow and feel the experience 

• Perform a comparison of implementation and defined interface

Outcomes

• User feedback 

• UI audit reports 

• Areas marked where improvement is required 

(User Testing)

After this last stage, the process will iterate itself and depending on the required changes, you may go to stage 2,3, or 4. 

The process goes on until the desired experience and customer satisfaction is achieved.