The Design Process: Step-By-Step
Step One: Get a basic understanding of what the problem is.
What are the clients looking to achieve with the solution that they’ve thought of?
If they approach Design with an idea or a concept, where, how, and why does the concept fit into the overall plan?
Example: The client wants a website.
Why do they want a website?
What are the goals and outcomes that you need to achieve; the goals and outcomes you’re looking to achieve with it?
Does it inform what we put front-and-centre, and how we structure our call-to-action?
Step Two: Background and Briefs
Background
Brief
What needs to be done?
What are the deadlines?
What is the content around this?
The content tends to hold our process back, so it should be on the table as soon as possible.
Step Three: For external projects, develop a Y-frame and/or mock-up. This will give the client an idea of what they want, and convey what we plan to develop.
Simplify this as much as possible. Show them:
The structure of the project and tool
How we intend to deliver
Develop outlines that will merge with other data.
Sometimes this step is circumvented entirely; particularly for design-heavy projects, which are typically built up from our initial mock-ups.
Step Four: Document the design and structure process
Step Five: Obtain user feedback.
If it's not a long term project, take what's been learned going forward. Long term projects require streams of user feedback to self-improve.
The Design Process: Small Projects VS Large Projects
Though the timeline for larger projects is naturally longer, the overall process for both small and large projects generally follow the same structure.
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