Process makes perfect
You wouldn’t start cooking dinner with a pile of ingredients and only an idea of what the meal should look like. So why approach your design project the same way?
By following a proven design path, you alleviate the headaches involved in guessing what the next step of the recipe would be.
The following five steps are no secret (for good reason). And yes, it’s a variation of Design Thinking.
1—Research
See where you stand.
Learning about your user, creating user personas, journey maps, problem statements, and finally competitor audit.
2—Ideate
Push the limits.
Find ways to make your project stand out (now that you’ve seen how your competitors position themselves). Push the limits of creativity to give something your users will never forget.
3—Wireframe
Lay the bones.
The proper structure is essential. Building a usable interface without any flair forces you to focus on what really matters. If something isn’t working here, it’s definitely not going to work once it’s mocked up.
4—Design
Slap on some paint.
Now comes the fun, adding some flesh to those bones. If the bones are in the right place, this process can be smooth as silk. If they’re not, well you may need to take a step back and play with the wires a little more.
5—Testing
Get it in front of users.
If no one likes your product, you might as well not have one. Same goes for an interface. If the user hates it, they won’t be coming back (and your client may not either). Testing confirms any hypotheses and points out any inadequacies.