The UX design process is a highly agile process. So, achieving the right balance between the UX design requirements and user experiences is the biggest challenge. In efforts to achieve this resulted in companies to look out for “what constitutes to the best UX design process?”. To help companies to get best-in-class UX design, here are steps that need to be followed.
Approach to UX Design Process
The UX design process is a systematic and scientific approach. The design process varies with designer and is also based on assessments or constraints designer is provided by the client. In this process to ensure best-in-class user-friendly design, here is the procedure one must follow the UX design process:
- Research
- Design
- User Testing
Research
This phase provides half of the foundation for the great design. UX Research can offer a quick help work out, if either one is struck in the design process or when something goes wrong. In most of the cases, not all are likely the targeted users of your product. It depends on the product idea and once the idea is precisely defined then good research provides detailed insights that go into your product UX design process. As this stage happens in the early stages of the design process, this can ensure better utilization of resources and save a lot of time and money.
The research-stage documentation can be categorized into two sections: collecting the data and showcasing the information
1. Collecting the Data
The process of collecting data includes: One-on-One Interviews, Surveys and Competitor Analysis.
1.1 One-on-One Interviews
Conducting one-on-one sessions and interviewing is the primary and best way to start the data gathering process of the product. It doesn’t matter how big the customer’s business unit is, source information can always be found. Information can be in any form like some valuable inputs, any image or anything. Some important questions that can help to extract meaningful information from clients:
- What is the business goal?
- Is there any existing design material?
- Know about existing users?
- Know about client background?
- Who are the competitors?
- Know project related information.
1.2 Surveys
Surveys are the most useful ways to get very particular information or feedback. This often of questions used to collect information about the specified topic or product. Using this technique, you can get your targeted user’s frame of mind and expectations about the product.
Key points to consider while generating survey questions are:
- The question should be focusing UX process
- Collect the user feedback
- No need to ask all the questions
- Ask the score out of 10 about your product or websites.
- Ask about useful features with reasons.
- Ask about his favorite features in the product.
1.3 Competitor Analysis
This methodology involves competitor product analysis or market research information. In this method, the focus is on scrutinizing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors in relation to the client’s product and list out your USPs:
- Better Understanding of Competition
- Compare your product’s unique qualities against your competitor
- List of product features and advantages
- Social Media Analysis, Followers, Tweets, Post etc.
2. Showcasing the Data
- User Personas: A user personas representation of goals and behavior of the group of users. Persona is the representation of the user. A persona generally based on user research and identify the needs, goals behavior patterns of your targeted users. With the use of personas one can identify, who is your ideal Customer and know who your product users are. Persona is essential to scale up the overall value proposition.
- User Scenarios: This is another way to collect information about the product. Using user scenario, you can describe the stories and context behind why a specific user or user group come to your website or app. This will give you a clear picture of the product and its behaviors. User Scenario is different from a user story.
- Customer Journey Maps: This includes a visual or graphic interpretation of the overall story form individual views. It’s an illustration or a diagram of all the touch points that your customer come to contact into contact with your company through online or offline.
Design
UX design process is studying the user behavior to understand the user motivations in the overall design and preferences in ensuring the best interaction between the customer and the product. Using the inputs, we will premise of the design phase is to put ideas in front of users, get their feedback, refine them, and repeat. These ideas may be represented by paper prototypes, interactive wireframes, or semi-functioning prototypes, all deliberately created in low-fidelity to delay any conversation relating to graphic identity, branding or visual details.
- Sketches: Sketching is a very important part of the design process. It is a very efficient way of communicating design, helps with visualization, allowing designers to draw sketches flow. By sketching things our first circulating them your first iterative development product.
- Sitemaps: Sitemaps are the ordered diagrams showing the complete structure of the website or Application. The sitemap will help to how to navigate should be structured, identify where the content will sit and what need to produce and help to show what relationship between different pages.
- Wire Frames: The easiest way to think about a wireframe is in terms of building a Home. Before you are going to apply the paint needs to draw the floor plan. A wireframe is a low-fidelity, simplified outline of your website or product.
- User Flows: A User flow is a way that is followed by a user to complete a task in an application or a website. User flows are made of steps. As a UX designer, you have a user-centered mindset and imagination to design and explain the steps in a user-friendly way.
- Paper prototypes: Paper prototyping is sketching screenshots on paper as substitutes for digital representations. What you might not have guessed, there are actually different levels of complexity.
- Mockups: This is the finalized outline prior to starting the development process. Here almost all UX design process details and decisions will be finalized, and the final version should be run by the client.
User Testing
User testing is a crucial aspect of the UX design process. This process consists of processes to evaluate the product by conduct a thorough research with users. User testing process can be achieved making the UX research personnel to directly interview the user to know if the design has incorporated all the changes or not. This research method enables to get deep information about your users patterns of behavior, preferences, and opinions. Conducting the testing process in the primary stages of the design enables avoid re-design costs, time to implement changes, and finally ensuring that results are in accordance with the user expectations. This way quality assurance capacities of the final product can be improved and ultimately leading to customer satisfaction.
1. Usability Test Plans
Usability testing comes in many forms: casual cafeteria studies, formal lab testing, remote online task-based studies and more. Usability test planning involves the following process:
- Prepare your product or design to test
- Find your participants
- Write a test plan
- Take on the role of moderator
- Present your findings
2. User Tasks
Be specific on the tasks users need to be performed should be presented very clearly. For this to happen better avoid high technical terminologies and instead provide a list of the actions users need to perform in achieving a particular task.
3. Usability Reports
Once the results of the testing are in hand, present the comprehensive results data in a manner understood even by the members without domain knowledge. The manner in which data presented is crucial. This certifies whether user interprets the data correctly in the manner the client wants to is the key here.
About Author
Ramchander works as a lead UI/UX designer at V-Soft Consulting. He holds more than 10 years of comprehensive professional experience in the field of UI, UX designing, web designing, wireframe, interactive prototypes, native mobile app, responsive design, design standards & guidelines, visual design, tools, software usability, W3C standard compliance, ADA (American Disability Act. 508) compliance and cross-browser compatibility for various web/mobile sites & apps.