Cher Iris

 

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

 

Creating an understanding

  • The User

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • The Brand

    What are your company’s values and mission? How does this project contribute to that goal? Is this the right time for your company to be pursuing this project?

Pain Points

  • Dream it.

    Since designing for the user experience is all about addressing your user’s pain points, you need to answer the question: What’s their problem?

  • Build it.

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • Grow it.

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

 

Research

After you know that this project is in line with your core mission, and you know what questions you’re trying to solve, you need to conduct research.

Your user research is going to be the life blood of your project. The things you discover and unearth during this stage lays the foundation for how your entire project will turn out.

The most dangerous thing you can do as a designer is not challenge your assumptions. Good user research challenges all your assumptions.

Some good methods of user research:

1:1 interviews

This is when you sit down with someone from your target audience and ask them pointed questions about their issues. What are they struggling with? What are they looking for in your product? Face to face interviews are preferred since you can gauge their verbal and nonverbal reactions but video or phone call can work as well.


User/Focus groups

This is when you have a group of 3 – 5 target users and have them discuss their attitudes, emotions, and frustrations with an issue or product. Remember: It’s a discussion—not just an interview. Encourage a dialogue between the participants and yourself.

Some good tools to use:

  • FocusGroupIt for easy group moderation

  • Video camera for recording the the group

  • Voice recorder for recording the group

Surveys

These are questionnaires you send out to your target users. These are good for finding out your users’ attitudes towards a specific topic with the added benefit of receiving the data as soon as the users are done with the survey. However, you have to be careful not to use leading questions that could disproportionately impact the results.

Some good online survey tools to consider:


Usability testing

This is the practice of observing your target audience using a program or product. For example, if you were a designer for the Uber app, you might ask your user to pull up the app and order a car. As they do so, you observe how the act and react to the app. When they’re done, you can ask them questions about their experience. This is a great opportunity to see how happy your user is with the app and if it adequately addresses their needs.

Some good tools to consider:

For more on user research, be sure to read our article on the topic here.


 
 

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

 

Analysis

In this stage, you’ll be using all of the information you gathered in the previous two stages to analyze and distill the most important elements.

Here are two ways you can analyze your research:

User personas

User personas are profiles of your ideal customer

Here’s a good example of one:

Designers use them to help understand a number of things about their customers including their:

  • Goals

  • Background

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Behaviors

  • Spending habits

  • Pain points

  • Needs

Think of personas as your North Star when it comes to all your decisions. If you ever encounter a tough problem, you can always refer back to your persona and ask, “What design best services this person’s needs?”

And you don’t have to distill all of your target users into one persona. You can create multiple personas to represent the varied users you have.

For more on user personas, be sure to check out our article on user persona templates.






User journey maps

A user journey map is a representation of the user’s interactions with your product.


According to Jim Kalbach, author of Mapping Experiences, the user journey map is crucial for:

  • Building empathy

  • Providing a common “big picture”

  • Breaking down silos

  • Bringing focus

  • Revealing opportunities

Leveraging the things you learned in the research phase, create a user journey map to help you understand what your user will be going through when using your product or service. Only then can you build the best product for them.

Let’s design

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Now, it’s time to actually build out your design.

That means building things like:

  • Site map

  • User flow

  • Mockups

  • Images

  • Icons

  • Colors

One of the most important things you can create at this stage is the wireframe.

A wireframe is like the prototype of your product—a bare essentials representation of your product.


Like a user journey map, this will give you a comprehensive look at your users’ experience with your product.

For more on creating wireframes, be sure to check out our article on the topic.

This is an iterative process. That means you won’t get it all done in the first go. You’ll have to design, redesign, scrap it, and design it all again.

Hyperventilation and overconsumption of coffee is completely natural at this stage.


Make it stand out.

 

Stage 5: Launch

After designing and redesigning until you go cross eyed, you’re going to reach a point where all your assets are ready to ship.

TIPS

Transform your static designs into clickable prototypes.

That means it’s time to implement; pass everything to the development team who will create a high fidelity version of the user interface.

This process will feel much like being in the waiting room while your significant other goes into labor. You’re nervous, stressed, and just hope the baby isn’t weird looking when it’s delivered.

Once it is delivered, there are several ways you can go about making sure that the product is perfect (or close to it):

User testing. Like the usability test, this involves you observing your target audience using the actual program.

  • Beta launch. This is a limited release of your product to a small amount of people with the goal of finding issues and cleaning them up before you launch it to the world.

  • Internal testing. When your own team uses the product and tests out each facet of it.


Once your product launches, it’s time for another round of analysis.

Instead of looking at the results of your research, though, you’ll be taking a look at your overall final product.

Some questions you might ask yourself:

  • Where did our process go right? And why?

  • Where did we struggle? And why?

  • How are our users responding to the product?

  • Did it solve their issues and pain points?

  • Where can we improve the product?

  • What lessons can we take away from this process for future products?

By thoroughly analyzing the product and the UX process, you’ll be able to get more out of the experience than just a product—you also gain invaluable knowledge you can leverage for the future.