First steps is to understand the problem. I discover business objectives. I look at what is there now and why it’s there. I get into the head of the business as well as the user. I try to understand what problem we are solving. This phase is critical as it brings to surface what is needed for the design. Once I get all the right info, I explore the user journeys and come up with basic wireframe designs that outline the design solution. This helps all stakeholders agree before the more difficult work is done. We want to make sure its right before moving forward.

Visual design is where I design a few concepts at a high-level. I do some initial user testing to gauge what people think and what the general feedback is.  The concepts are presented to the client where we discuss the designs and move forward from there. Based on feedback of the wires and prototypes, this allows me to verify and validate the decisions up to this point. This is important to do before final visual design is begun so that adjustments can be made early on. During this phase we may also discover new challenges that may need to look at.

This part of the design process should be developing the entire flow, designing for and defining edge cases so that design patters work in all instances, and using actual data to design realistic user flows. Once designs are created and set up, this will be turned into high fidelity design prototypes that will be a representation of the final product. This is the phase where design patterns are created to make development easier, and the experience easy and familiar for the end user. Once the designs are prototyped. They are put through user testing which could potentially result in more design work pending data and feedback.

Once design is approved, the project enters the Dev stage. Design works with the Dev team to make sure that the design aspect of the project is in line with the projects definitions. Design files are referred to inside Invision so that integrity to the designs stay intact. Additionally pattern libraries and overall site style guide is defined and provided so that Dev can build the site with standards in place. Invision shows general CSS and provides assets for the Dev team. In some instances, video animation of interactions showing mobile animations or behavior will be provided to help explain design intention. Once Dev has a product to review, QA takes place from design to make sure that Dev is meeting the overall design goals. Once QA is final and the site is launched, further monitoring of the site is needed to make any adjustments to design patterns or other aspects to further improve the experience.

Now that you have your website or application designed, it is vital to keep testing and iterating to make sure your website or application is working well. Customers or users habits may change over time. Sometimes what your initial research suggested may work well, may actually need to be revisited over time. It is important to keep an eye on progress and use through analytics, and user testing. This eventually ensures that your website or application performs as desired.