Prefer to watch and listen? I got you!
When googling the phrase "UX design process," you may come across the Design Thinking model or a variation of it. However, the main phases are:
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
And some of the models show a straight line. However, the process is more fluid, and you may revisit steps, which is normal, such as from test back to prototype back to test.
1. So, the first step is empathize. In this step, you will be looking at user research. Within this, you can look at primary research such as surveys or interviews and/or secondary research, e.g., metrics that are already out there, with the aim to find the pain points. Here are some examples of how that would look like. As you can see, I found the main frustrations of the user to be budget, lack of a kid-friendly interface, and reading being required.
As well as doing user research, it is also important to do a competitor audit. This allows you to see what the competitors are doing well and not so well, creating an opportunity for you and your client.
2. Now that we have empathized, the next step is to define. Within this stage, we will be setting our goal, creating the problem statement. In my example, my problem statement was "too often, children don't have the right diet due to the cost and/or skills to cook their food, leading to children going to sleep on an empty stomach." So, the goal is "to design an app teaching children how to cook simple, healthy food that is budget-friendly."
At this stage, you also want to define the target persona. This will involve both demographics, such as age and gender, as well as psychographics, such as their goals and frustrations. Here is an example of my target persona.
3. Next, it is time to ideate. So, here is where you will have your initial ideas. This usually takes the form of sketches. This can be either pen and paper or, if you want to be more environmentally friendly and cut down on your usage of paper, your trusty iPad/tablet will do you good! Here is an example of my early sketches for this project. As you can see, they're rough sketches, nothing pretty, just to get the idea across.
You may also do some user flows like this.
4. The prototype stage is where you will do the digital wireframes. This can be in low-fi prototyping, and you can use software like Figma or Adobe XD.
5. When the prototype is done, it is time to test. This is where you will conduct usability studies, which will allow you to improve your prototype.
6. Next, that's when I would move back to the prototype and create those improvements based on the usability findings and create the high-fi prototype. And you may do the two final steps, prototype and test, a couple of times.
Feel free to see the full example with all the stages here
Thanks for reading!
Kami x
