- Understand project objectives, business goals, and why we want to do this work.
- Identify stakeholders, timeline, and business context.
- Understand affected product areas, scope, and relevant platforms (e.g. desktop, responsive, mobile).
- Understand user goals, attitudes, and workflows.
- Review prior data if available, such as usability feedback, customer support reports, data logs, Google Analytics.
- Gather info from subject matter experts.
- If possible, interview users or conduct research if there are gaps in knowledge.
- Identify all relevant touchpoints in the end-to-end user experience.
- Create flowcharts to understand workflows and use cases.
- Heuristic evaluation of existing experiences.
- Conduct competitive design review to see how others handle similar design problems.
- Review and discuss anticipated product requirements.
- Flesh out and develop requirements as needed.
- Create a plan for the design approach for larger-scale projects.
- High-level brainstorm to formulate designs and explore different approaches, typically via sketches and wireframes.
- Start testing the boundaries and resilience of the product requirements
- Design Studio-style workshops with key stakeholders, if possible, to capture a wide variety of ideas and new insights.
- Share initial designs with key stakeholders to ensure they address the necessary requirements.
- Early discussions with Engineering to gather initial feedback, coordinate backend architecture development, and discuss potential modifications or limitations based on engineering requirements.
- Communicate with other stakeholders (e.g. Marketing, Merchandising, Support, Operations, etc) at appropriate times based on their level of involvement (ranging from feedback and approval to a simple heads-up).
- Peer reviews with other designers to generate new ideas and for knowledge-sharing.
- Continual cycle of design refinements based on reviews with peers, stakeholders, SMEs, and approvers.
- Prototype designs to facilitate design reviews and help visualize interactions.
- Test designs with actual users if possible.
- Work with visual designers if significant style changes are anticipated.
- Design beyond just the “happy path” use case.
- High-fidelity mockups.
- Final design reviews with stakeholders and approvers.
- Account for all use cases including error cases, validation rules, etc.
- Finalize all copy.
- Document UX specs for all use cases and relevant screens.
- Create flowcharts for new workflows if relevant and useful.
- Walk through designs and UX specs with development team for sprint planning.
- Create and assemble new assets if needed.
- Work with visual designers on creating visual design specs, if relevant.
- Answer questions for developers as needed.
- Conduct UAT.
- Troubleshoot unforeseen pre-launch design issues.
- Understand post-launch impact via qualitative and quantitative data.
- Organize and plan for subsequent design changes as needed for future releases and versions.
- Understand project objectives, business goals, and why we want to do this work.
- Identify stakeholders, timeline, and business context.
- Understand affected product areas, scope, and relevant platforms (e.g. desktop, responsive, mobile).
