"A great design is accessible, beautiful, intuitive, resourceful, and delightful to use."
design process

DESIGN PROCESS

research

My Approach

Here is a high level view of areas I cover to ensure a thorough and successful outcome.

  1. User
  2. Goal (not | is)
  3. W's: What, when where, who, why, how
Current
  1. Process
  2. Action, tools/touch
  3. Pain points
Dream
  1. Action, tools/touch
  2. Process
Consider
  1. Competitive market analysis
  2. Dependencies, risks
  3. Constraints
  4. Assumptions
  5. Measure success
  6. LEMI: least effort maximum impact

Others

  • Platform:       mobile, tablet, web, desktop
  • Feasible:       data, back-end, technology, legal, etc.
  • Scalable:      consistent, whole system, end-to-end, policies, governance
  • Resource:      people, tools, budget, etc.
  • Accessibility, stakeholders, use cases, risks, sustainablity, etc.
New
  1. Must haves (mvps)

MVP drivers

  • Aligns with the company's vision and emphasis.
  • Customer’s needs, delivers value, based on user research and innovation.
  • Scope, quarterly initiatives, epics, features, sprint stories.
  • Sequentially executables: environments, dependencies, constraints, urgency.
  • Low hanging fruit. LEMI (Least effort maximum impact).

Dive Deep

I believe behind every problem lies an opportunity. Opportunity to do better amidst problems at hand. Some call it, "Diamond in the rough." It takes a mind set and resolve to be fanatically positive. It takes faith to sees through smoke what's on the other side, and go from undertain to certain, dark to light, untangible to tangible. Whenever I design, I go through a series of questions to ensure a thorough and successful research. I call it

research
research

Key Questions to Answer

research

END-TO-END

  • What is the E2E(end-to-end) flow and experience? From pre-onboarding, landing, to finish?
  • What is the current process, tools, and use cases?
  • What is the life-cycle and life time value of a user?
  • How do users go about to discover what they are looking for?
  • How do users go through search and navigation menus? Which do they use more and how can they be improved?

SIMPLIFY

  • What are users familiar with?
  • Key simplifying methods:
    • Group.
    • Hide.
    • Reduce steps.
    • Provide one login or place to manage.
    • Map the architecture, flows, and locations: i.e. bread crumbs.
    • Display steps via stepper or subway.
    • AI, automate, autofill.
    • Provide smart defaults.
    • No more than three clicks to reach the destination.
    • Minimize scrolling.
  • Consistency leads to simplicity and clarity. How can we maintainconsistency?
  • What existing components and paradigms can we use and create to reuse?
  • Reduce number of hand-off steps and silos.
  • What process, features, data, or tools do we need to remove, add, relocate, and improve?
  • Does the newly pivoting component, innovative design, or feature that’d depart from what’s existing justify its effort?
  • How can we reduce context switching and allow users to get what is needed from one location?
  • What can be standardized and automated?
  • Make the content feel highly personalized.
  • Drive global consistency and adhere to accessibility standards.

VALUE DRIVEN

  • Data that is insightful with capabilities (high level to details, fast, reliable, secure, etc. ) that deliver value to customers.
  • Is the product or data what customers are really using, wanting, or needing? Perform user research and data analysis to validate.
  • Add, remove, group, move, leverage toward new investment (long-term) tools. Can we use existing tools either what we already own or look to a new one?
  • LEMI: Least Effort Maximum Impact.

SCALABLE

  • Synch with other dependencies (internal and external), [design] systems, and tools - both what's current and ahead in 6-12 months.
  • What is the market trend? How can we use existing designs of current trend setters?
  • Policies, standards, and governance to move forward.

ACTIONABLE

  • Clear direct actions to take.Show the next best step.
  • Prevent error, self-healing.
  • Help monitor relevant and personal information at a glance.
  • Ways to improve or introduce CRUD: Create, Read, Update, Delete. Plus, audit history and archive features.

MEASURABLE

  • Assumptions are validated by users and its key success indicators: KPIs, OKRs.
  • Meets what was assigned as definition of done.
  • Supports company's mission.
  • What data and metrics do we need to have and add to reach our goal?
  • What features and data can be grouped?
  • Which data should be shown aggregated and individually? At what levels?
  • What comparable data or features should be displayed next to what is central and how?

PERSONABLE

  • Familiar to the user.
  • Customizable to the user and also by specific roles.
  • Culturally relevant.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

design process

To create a successful product, a keen work process is critical. Since each client's need is unique, a suitable model should be applied accordingly - such as lean, agile, and others. A design process provides me with a good frame to work with. What appears to be a simple screen can consist of many components, hidden elements, unseen scenarios, and visual cues that are difficult to grasp in a single mockup; a design process enhances simplicity and comprehension.

   I am a proponent of the Lean UX process.

A good design takes time, so depending on the requirements, I can either start off by sketching ideas on a notebook, creating the layout using Miro board, Figma, or design straight in the browser. Typically my flow can be broken down into six stages. There are many factors such as time constraints, budget, and pivoting that can affect the outcome of each stage. Each of these stages require feedback and approval from the client and engineers before moving on to the next one.

User Requirements
  1. Connect with the client to understand the business goals, history of the brand, and current situation
  2. Understand the What, When, Who, Why, What-if, and How
  3. Reach out to users to learn about their current workflows and pain points, map out use cases and scenarios
  4. Clarify what users really want or need, then create personas
  5. Sketch out the rough ideas
Research & Exploration
  1. Research existing solutions and competitors in the market
  2. Gather resources needed to carry out the project
  3. Come up with design options
  4. Consider every use cases to be certain that features being considered will be likable, feasible, and viable
  5. Circle back with product managers on user input, call out what’s missing from the initial requirements
  6. Clarify problems, goals, and metrics with PMs and engineers
UX Design
  1. Research established UX patterns for achieving the goal
  2. Draft wireframes and flowcharts driven by use cases
  3. Create user flows to reach each goal in the least amount of steps
  4. Build around each type of user and platform
  5. Break down the user flows into a system of interconnected components
  6. Determine various states for each wireframe, i.e. empty, filled, logged in, error, etc
UI Design
  1. Set a consistent UI theme and kit for reusable components
  2. For reports, charts, data grids and other modules, explore different visualization options
  3. Experiment with different styles, colors and typography most suited to the needs
  4. Generate guidelines to help engineers understand visual properties such as size, style, positioning, and motion
  5. Transform the wireframes into high fidelity mockups
Prototype
  1. Build interactive prototypes for the client and engineers to demonstrate flows, interactions, and receive feedback
  2. Determine the start, processing, and end state for each action
  3. Generate visuals that are adaptable at various sizes and platforms
  4. Add cometic features such as logos, images, and animations
  5. Ensure visuals are accessible, on-brand, and within cultural boundaries
UA Test
  1. Run critiques with the design team and present designs to product stakeholders along the way to get feedback from different angles
  2. Share designs with users, let them play with the prototypes, get user feedback and iterate
  3. Try and land on options that fulfill optimal value for users, business, and engineering
  4. Collaborate with engineers to overcome technical hurdles and find feasible options
  5. Run test cases you've created - go through and check off the list
  6. Finalize all for handover to engineers