My Process
As a fully remote UX Designer, I use the process below to work effectively with cross-functional teams throughout all stages of the product build cycle using design-thinking methodology. Depending on the project's budget, business requirements, available resources, and timeline, I tailor my approach to best fit the specific needs of the project.
1. Kickoff & Workshop
Kickoff meetings and workshops are an essential first phase of the UX design process for me when starting a new project, gearing up to address a problem, or adding a new feature to current products. I find that they help to set the stage for success by aligning stakeholders, clarifying requirements, generating ideas, and fostering collaboration among team members.
​
Stakeholders
Business lead, designers, and subject matter experts.
​
Activities
Interview stakeholders, collect/organize documentation, and facilitate discovery/innovation workshops.
​
Deliverables
Discovery documentation, business goal clarification documentation, and vision statements.
​
Value
Understand product/project vision, align on desired outcomes, understand project constraints, align on target personas, and identify risk assumptions.
2. UX Research
During this phase, I gather and analyze user insights to guide design decisions, encourage empathy, and ensure that products deliver solutions to their users.
​
Stakeholders
UX designers, product managers, developers, subject matter experts, decision-makers, users.
Activities
User research: observations and interviews
Analyze existing data: competitive analysis, user feedback, and heuristic evaluation.
Deliverables
User interview documents, empathy maps, user personas, user journey maps, and research findings documentation.
Value
Understand the current state of the product & market and understand user behaviors, needs, pain points, and goals.
3. Define Requirements
By analyzing the observations gathered during the research phase, I then identify the core problems with a human-centric approach.
​
Stakeholders
UX Designer, developers, analysts, users, decision-makers, business owners.
​
Activities
How Might We method, Red dot voting exercise, and Five Whys
​
Deliverables
Problem statement documentation.
​
Value
Understanding the user needs, problem clarity, aligning stakeholders, risk reduction.
4. Ideation & Conceptualization
In the ideation phase, the team focuses on generating ideas. With a solid background from previous phases, we can explore the problem from different perspectives.
​
Stakeholders
UX Designer, developers, analysts, users, decision-makers, business owners.
​
Activities
Brainstorming sessions, storyboarding, brainwriting.
​
Deliverables
A solution to the problem statement to move forward with.
​
Value
It enables teams to explore unconventional solutions, identify opportunities for improvement.
5. Information Architecture
The systematic organization and structuring of content, functionality, and navigation within a digital product or interface to enhance usability, findability, and overall user experience.
Stakeholders
UX Designer, developers, analysts, users, decision-makers, business owners.
​
Activities
Research analysis, card sorting, and hierarchy & navigation design.
Deliverables
Site maps, information architecture maps, and user flow maps.
​
Value
Information architecture plays a crucial role in shaping the user experience by organizing content effectively, improving usability, and aligning with both user needs and business goals.
6. Wireframing
During this phase, lo-fi and mid-fi wireframes are created for the product or features created in the Ideation phase.
​
Stakeholders
UX Designer, decision-makers, business owners.
​
Activities
Creation and annotation of wireframes, and iteration based on feedback.
​
Deliverables
Lo-fi wireframes, mid-fi wireframes, and iteration documentation.
​
Value
Promotes rapid iteration, early feedback, cost-efficiency, collaboration, and a focus on functionality and user experience. By leveraging low-fidelity wireframes, designers can effectively explore and refine design ideas while aligning with user needs and business goals.
7. Prototyping
The prototyping stage of UX design involves creating highly detailed, interactive representations of the product or interface to test and validate design concepts in the next stage. By providing a clickable prototype, the user and stakeholders can test the solution. Prototyping helps validate assumptions, uncover usability issues, and ensure that the final product meets user needs and expectations.
​
Stakeholders
UX Designer, decision-makers, business owners, users, developers.
​
Activities
Prototype creation, stakeholder presentations, and technical assessments.
​
Deliverables
Prototypes, and feedback documentation.
​
Value
Prototyping provides a realistic representation of the product, facilitating effective communication with stakeholders, enabling detailed usability testing, and supporting iterative design refinement.
7. User Testing
In this phase, the product is tested using the best solutions identified in the wireframing stage. Using design-thinking methodology, this iterative process generates results that are often used to redefine one or more further problems.
​
Stakeholders
UX Designer, decision-makers, business owners, users.
​
Activities
Test planning, test setup, conducting testing, testing analysis.
​
Deliverables
Testing result documentation.
​
Value
The ultimate goal is to get as deep an understanding of the product and its users as possible.