# 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**

1. Background
2. 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. <br>

### **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.<br>