Intro to Design Process
Being a creative person, I always thought that designing is all about aesthetically pleasing visuals but after reading various blogs and completing a few courses on user experience, I realized that this is not true.
So, what designing actually is?
Here’s how I describe it:
Designing is a process of converting an idea into a useful and usable product with pleasant visuals.
Alright! That’s a bit too concise. Let me explain.
The design process can vary a lot depending on the product you are designing.
For example, It can be a digital product like a website or an app, or a physical product like a Nike shoe or a car.
Thus, there are a few stages of the design process that every product needs to go through before its actual development can take place.
1. Research
Having an idea for a product is great but whether people need it or not can play a major role in business. That’s where research comes in.
Finding answers to questions like:
- Who your target audience is?
- What system are they currently using to solve that problem?
- What their pain points are, i.e., what difficulties do they face with the current system in use?
- What additional features or changes they wish for that would make their experience less stressful?
These were just some areas of research which can offer tremendous and useful insights on whether to proceed with an idea or not.
Research should also be done when dealing with an existing product as it helps in understanding how an existing product can be made better to offer a better user experience.
Thus, spending some time researching is worthwhile considering how much time, money and other resources it can save later if done correctly.
2. Wireframing
After gathering information about users, it is now time to analyze insights from the research phase, brainstorm ideas and implement those ideas.
Though it might seem daunting when you first read it, it is really not that complicated.
Wireframing is a process where you create simple sketches using lines and simple shapes such as rectangle, square, circle, oval, etc. on pen and paper or maybe with help of some digital tool.
During this stage, it is highly unlikely that you’ll create a perfect design in the first attempt. There’s a lot of back and forth that happens when you are brainstorming ideas on how to create the best user experience possible. Multiple layouts are thought of during this stage.
Ultimately, the wireframe that is likely to provide the best user experience moves forward to the prototyping stage.
3. Prototyping
In this stage, it is time to convert sketched wireframes into working prototypes to capture design concepts behind each feature and test it on users.
Prototyping is a process of building a model of how an actual product will look like.
For example: In the case of creating a prototype for an app will require a designer to design each screen of the app that user will interact with. This involves choosing which colours to use, which font style and size to consider, how much margin and padding would be appropriate and things like that to provide a delightful user experience.
Note: No development of the actual products begins during this stage.
Creation of prototypes can take place in design software like Figma, Sketch, AdobeXD, etc.
4. Testing
For any design to be successful, it is essential to test it.
Testing is a process of evaluating whether a particular design meets the goals that were set to provide good user experience.
Multiple types of testing can be performed to assess a particular design.
To name a few :
- Guerrilla testing
- A/B testing
- Diary testing
- Beta testing
After testing the design, one may need to iterate through few or all stages of the design process to rectify the problems encountered during testing. This is why designing is an iterative process as there is always a scope of improvement.
So, when should one stop?
Once the goals of the particular project are met, the design should be forwarded to developers to start the development of the product.
These were the 4 stages of the design process which are necessary to perform.
Hope you enjoyed reading!
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Have a great day!
