THE DISCOVERY
The very first step in any project is to understand the main product business goals. What kind of problems is this product trying to solve? Who is the client? What are any possible technical constraints?
Collecting necessary business requirements and all related data helps me identify the best solution.
At this step, I need to understand the broader product ecosystem and envision how the product may evolve beyond the immediate release. We don’t need to define every future functionality, but we do need enough of the big picture to make informed decisions now without unnecessarily limiting what the product can become later.
Deliverables at this stage may include product and business goals, a high-level product process flow, key assumptions and constraints, and a working view of the broader product direction.
IDENTIFICATION
Having identified the business goals, I can determine user goals. User goals support, but do not equal, business goals. Based on research results, it’s possible to start identifying key user groups, behaviors, needs, and goals, which may be developed into User Personas where they are useful.
The next step is to analyze the existing business requirements and determine how information, content, functionality, and navigation need to be structured. Depending on the product, this may include a formal information architecture and can range from relatively simple to highly complex.
Deliverables may include documented user goals and behaviors, User Personas where appropriate, and information architecture or other structural models showing important relationships and dependencies.
UX STRUCTURE
Once there is enough information to understand the users, business goals, product structure, and key constraints, I start mapping user processes and experience flows. User flows are fairly detailed flowcharts that illustrate how users navigate micro-processes and achieve user goals at each step. At this step, we need to make sure that the logic is consistent across the whole application and the process is intuitive for users.
User flows can then be translated into visual concepts using low- or higher-fidelity wireframes where appropriate. Wireframes help us understand the screens, interactions, information, and UI elements needed to support each step of the experience before investing heavily in visual design.
As soon as there is something meaningful to validate, prototypes and user testing can begin. The goal is to test important assumptions early enough that what we learn can still influence the product direction.
Deliverables may include user flows, low- or high-fidelity wireframes, prototypes, and findings from early validation, depending on what the product needs.
UX PROCESS AS PART OF DEVELOPMENT AND ROLES
The exact activities, sequence, and roles will vary by product and team, but the important point is that User Experience work spans the product development lifecycle rather than occurring as a single design phase.
UI DESIGN
Testing should begin as early as there is something meaningful to test. Research, experience, and data can guide our decisions, but until we put our assumptions in front of actual users, some of what we believe about the experience remains exactly that: an assumption.
Testing will help identify the efficacy of already prototyped or wireframed products and determine possible areas for improvement.
Once initial testing is done, we can move to creating high fidelity mockups and prototypes.
UI design will cover all aspects of the visual part of the application. It has a direct correlation with brand identity. If that doesn’t yet exist, it needs to be created and once again tested. Once this task is complete, the UI design process is about how to apply existing guidelines and use them efficiently to support user goals and user flows.
Carefully crafted high-fidelity mockups should provide enough visual and interaction detail for users, stakeholders, and development teams to understand the intended experience, while still allowing the product to evolve as testing and implementation uncover new information. Here, visual guidelines and elements are applied to wireframes and modified until the desired aesthetic is achieved.
Final deliverables may include high-fidelity mockups or prototypes representing key product flows, along with a UI kit or design system appropriate to the maturity and complexity of the product. These can include reusable components, interaction patterns, visual standards, and specifications needed to support consistent implementation.
USER TESTING
I believe that validation should be an ongoing part of product development. User testing, behavioral data, product metrics, stakeholder feedback, and what we learn during implementation all give us new information. The goal is not simply to validate what we designed, but to recognize when the evidence tells us something should change.
