Have you ever had to work on a project within a shorter timeline than you’d have loved to, and unfortunately, you ended up spending a longer timeline correcting, tweaking and making revisions till it was fit for purpose? Or maybe you once started a design project and got stuck halfway because you were not sure what direction to continue in?
Well, these situations are not uncommon and they could be as a result of a couple of factors, which could make up an endless list. However, a major way of preventing these scenarios from reoccurring, is by having a well defined design process.
The success of a design project is highly dependent on multiple factors. From the kind of client, to the skill of the Designer to the timeline of the project, and of course, to the payment involved (if there is, you don’t need to pretend like it doesn’t count). Therefore, to achieve a commendable work, the designer is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that all these factors are collectively decent enough and are harmonized for the best possible results. One of the ways of achieving this is by having a well defined design process.
As expected, you might have been part of the ‘Design process’ conversation a couple of times, but here’s a different perspective to it you should consider.
Maybe it’s not just about having a ‘Design Process’, but actually about having a functional one, because in the end, every designer has a process, even the ‘3D logo designer’. Just like a businessman who makes jewelries out of pure gold has his process, the businessman who makes gold-plated jewelries also has his process.
What then makes the difference? Purpose; results.
It is one thing to have a design process, it is another thing to have one that is result oriented. A result oriented design process is one that seeks to create a balance between problem solving, user desirability and market sustainability.
Having this perspective towards every design project would influence what stages to include in your process and how robust each stage should be. It’d help you realize the importance of each stage to your finished work and would guide you in making the right decisions through the process.
In all honesty, there’s no hard and fast rule to the names you give each stage in your process. What really matters is what you do in that stage and how well you do it. Therefore, these are just basic aspects to design thinking you should adopt for a smoother workflow and a remarkable finished work.
1. Problem Definition:
You’d agree with me that although design is art, it is also problem solving. And for a problem to be solvable, it means the problem has to be identified in the first place. So if your design project does not have a specific or precise problem it seeks to solve or a need it seeks to meet, you might as well put the project on hold.
This is the stage where the Designer, on his own or with his client, as the case may be, empathizes with the users and understands their relationship with their environment, and the possible gaps that digital products or designs can fill. It’s an understanding of an everyday user’s pain point in his daily interaction with the globe and considering how certain gaps can be filled to make the user’s life easier.
2. Research and Information Gathering:
A major aspect of a result oriented design process is an understanding of the history or background to the defined problem, its present, its future and how your project can fit into it, and this can only be achieved by meticulous research. Here, the designer is expected to ask as many questions as possible that revolve around the identified problem and the solution sought to be provided.
One major thing a well carried out research does for you is that it gives you reasons for every decision you’d end up making. In other words, it takes your design choices and decisions from a place of superficiality to a place of purpose and result.
Maybe the reason why you and your client or your ‘other self’ constantly have a back and forth with your design choices is because those choices are not built on a concrete ‘why’, apart from ‘it looks nice’.
Maybe if you did just a little further research, your choices would reflect strong convictions that every other person would see through, and question less. Just maybe.
Every other stage is built on the data that you are able to gather in this stage. Dear designer, make it count.
Oh, while at it, also be sure that your research and questioning are tailored towards an actual better understanding of the defined problem, rather than looking for answers to validate your preconceived notion about the problem. At this stage, you need all the objectivity you can get, to guide you towards the result- centered finishing you desire. Also, research is not a one time stage in a design process. It is continuous, so you shouldn’t hesitate to gather useful information that’d move you a step closer towards the solution, as the need arises.
3. Ideation:
Some people have said that this is the most interesting part of the process. Well, maybe because the steps towards the actual problem solving are taken here. At this stage, based on the defined problem and the information gathered about the problem, through research, the designer begins to create possible options tailored towards solving the problem that has been identified. Here, he asks questions like ‘How do I want this solution to be different from the already existing ones?’ ‘What do I want to stand out the most for the user, when he comes in contact with this work?’ and other questions alike. These questions would help him to generate ideas that are centered around solving the problem in a manner that prioritizes user desirability, market sustainability, all guided by technical feasibility (that is, how possible it is for this solution to be achieved by this technology or process). This could be by creating mood boards, stylescapes, color schemes, series of sketching and any other design- specific action centered around generating different possible directions that a solution could take.
This stage is concluded with an evaluation of the best workable option. Here, the designer should always be reminded that the design is not for him, neither is the project to solve his problem. Therefore, his preference or his bias is not the yardstick for determining the most workable option. The User is, and as such, decision making should be largely dependent on that.
4. Prototyping:
This is the stage where the solution actually comes to life. Here, the direction that has been selected is designed and represented in a manner that reflects every decision that has been made up to that point towards creating a solution fit for purpose. You could say it’s that ‘This is it’ moment.
5. Testing:
This is the stage where the problem that was initially defined is placed side by side with the presently designed solution, and there’s an evaluation on whether or not the problem was indeed solved.
As I earlier mentioned, the designer is not designing for himself, neither is the client creating a solution for himself. Therefore, a determinant of whether or not you’ve had a successful run, is in the user’s feedback, and this is gotten from testing. For product design, there are many digital tools that can make this possible such as UserTesting, Usability Hub, Lookback, Maze, UserZoom, Validately and a couple of others.
Always remember that every top tier product or design is not necessarily one that has the highest budget. Rather, it is one that has been able to find the intersection between functionality and satisfaction, according to its users, and a way of guaranteeing this is by Testing.
Don’t be surprised if you have to tweak or adjust some aspects of your design when you start getting feedback. However, the difference between this kind of feedback and its subsequent revisions, when compared with revisions that arise from a project that was carried out without a result- oriented process, is that the core of your project would always be preserved.
A good Design process is not only one that has a number of steps to go through, but also one where a large chunk of work is divided into bits, with each portion being held together at its core of solving the user’s problem and maintaining a market sustainability.
Like I said, the scenarios I gave at the beginning could be as a result of a number of factors, but I can assure you that a systematic design process as this, with a result oriented perspective alongside, would definitely give you an upper hand in preventing such scenarios from reccuring in your workflow. So just before you start sketching or just before you choose a direction for your next project, be sure you have a process you want to work by, give meaning to it and don’t jump the gun!
