User Research

01. Competitive Analysis

It's important to assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitors against your user's and stakeholder's needs. I’ll usually start with researching client's competitors just to see how others have already solved, or attempted to solve some of the same problems. Next, I like to gather inspiration from the dribble, awwwards.com, Behanced, and other inspiration library sites.

02. Mental Models

I like to start by capturing user's behaviors. It's important to focus on their pain points, motivations, and needs from contextual inquires. The next step consist of grouping that information into logical pillars to create personas. I then map out the product features for each persona created. Mapping your product's features back to personas helps with identifying gaps, opportunities, and feature bloat. I've had a lot of experience conducting various types of user research over the years. It's definitely not my favorite part of the process, but it’s absolutely vital for a successful product's launch.

03. User Journey Analysis

Creating mental modals surface both the business' and user's needs. This information is vital for creating user journeys. User Journeys are a series of steps which represent a scenario in which a user might interact with your product. Monitoring this activity over time will help ensure your product stays user-centric focused.

 
 
 

Pre-Production

04. Storyboarding

Storyboards help me visually depict scenarios from each user journey. Storyboards should show the context, the problem, the user's pain points / motivations, and how the problem will be solved. There are many ways to complete this step. My choice of execution varies across project timelines. White-boarding is a great way to complete this step. It's particularly exceptional for cross-team collaboration and workshops. When I work on personal projects or with a smaller team, I use good old fashion thumbnail sketches to quickly create my storyboards.

05. Wireframe

I use wires to visually communicate abstract concepts with users and colleagues. The level of fidelity is determined by the overall message trying to be conveyed. Low fidelity wires are great for outlining a strategy and overall goals at a higher level. I'll create higher fidelity wires for showcasing certain product features and interaction modals. It's important that clients and colleagues outside of the creative departments understand your vision. 

06. Prototyping

Get users input early in the design process is always ideal. The best way to do that is to share progress, then document feedback throughout a project's lifecycle. Prototypes are the best way to get constructive feedback from clients and users. Prototypes uncover usability issues and validate design decisions based on actual user reactions. I like to share prototypes with developers as soon as possible. It helps the team better understand the level of effort required to build certian components. Like wireframes, the level of fidelity should vary based on task or features you want feedback on.

There are a lot of tools on the market. I like to use paper prototypes or Invision to quickly exemplify onboardings and simpler task based flows. Invision offers a number of collaborative features that come in handy for internal discussions. Principle is great for demonstrating more detailed concepts. I us it for testing functionality and interaction model exploration. My only pain point with Principle is the lack of a web export option. That's were tools like Webflow and Framer.js come in handy. Principle can only export video files. Framer and Webflow produce clickable prototypes perfect for user testing. 

 
 
 

Production

07. High Fidelity Mockups & Prototypes

This is personally my favorite part of the process. Rigorous user research and a defined strategy ensure your product has a solid foundation. Now we're ready to focus on things like the product's branding, site grid structure, typography, color swatches, iconography, etc. I’ve recently incorporated Libraries in to my workflow. Libraries are great for solo projects, but they really come in handy for large scale projects with a lot of team members. Libraries ensure everyone is working with the most up-to-date assets and eliminate a lot of workflow redundancies. I like to refine my user interaction models at this stage. This is a great opportunity to collect any final feedback before you hand things off to get developed. 

08. Development Hand-off

Developers preferred method of file delivery vary across projects. Delivering final assets usually consist of:

  • Finalizing any prototype specs or interaction models
  • QA testing components
  • Prioritizing any left over components in the backlog
  • Attaching all design assets to a Confluence page or Jira ticket
 
 
 

Post-Production

No project is ever complete. User’s expectations and needs are always changing. To insure any product’s longevity, it’s imperative that you fine-tune and reiterate to stay in-touch with your user’s. The best way to do that is to go back to the beginning of the process, then A/B test your findings. That means starting with Competitive Analysis and working your way through the process all over again.