UX stands for user experience and UX design is all about creating experiences (in the form of products and services) that solve problems for users. The UX design process is the structure we use to help identify and solve those problems.
The UX process ensures we’re building products that people want to use. It gives the whole team a clear vision of the product and ensures that the end user’s needs are considered at every step.
What do the UX design processes look like?
The process you follow depends on several different factors: the project, the stakeholders, the budget, the deadlines, and your level of expertise. The UX design process should always be simple and efficient. As illustrated below, this design process consists of five different stages. Use these stages as an inspiration rather than a template to make them work for your project in terms of time and budget. It is important to remember that UX design is an iterative process and that each activity provides a solid foundation for the next activity to build upon.
There are five stages in the UX design process:
Research.
Plan.
Design.
Prototype.
Test.
Research:
A great user experience is tailored and understands the behaviors, needs, and goals of both business stakeholders and users. Brainstorming possible ideas, doing simple sketching and quick paper prototyping, analyzing trends, or conducting user surveys and individual in-depth interviews could be beneficial at this early stage. Preliminary research in your project will give you lots of knowledge to use later on.
Plan:
Construct a plan based on the needs and insights gathered from your research. Define objectives and subsidiary goals to keep you and your team going forward.
Use cases and scenarios supporting the product requirements could be an advantageous attachment to your project documents.
Design: Find a design worth refining based on the material gathered in the first activities and create mood boards, system maps, and wireframe mock-ups. Present and choose your design together with the stakeholders to begin the refinement process. Designing and redesigning are both key elements of this activity. Visual design is part of this activity.
Prototype: Build a representation of your ideas and solutions. Create prototypes to document the experience and then further work on them together with the developers. Expert review backed up with a cognitive walkthrough is great for detecting issues with the design.
Test: The product should be validated with stakeholders and users through user testing sessions. Make your users test your prototype and get feedback. You will need feedback not only on the usability of your product but also on the whole UX scope. The testing should be done using different browsers and devices. Improve the product based on the knowledge learned through this activity.
It's crucial to understand that this process doesn't adhere to a waterfall model since these are outdated. Instead, like other agile methodologies, it allows for iterative cycles to move forward on your project. It is particularly crucial to repeat steps three, four, and five. Once these steps are done, your high-fidelity design is ready to be launched. However, this doesn't imply that your work is complete. Data, such as support tickets, bug reports, and other analytics, will continue to drive product improvement through future iterations and upgrades.