User experience design is one of the most important steps to improve your business. For this reason, we will examine the different stages of user experience design in this article. The stage of user experience design is a question that many people will probably ask you as a ux designer.
If your employer asks this question, you need to be able to answer it accurately. What are the stages of user experience design? Knowing about the ux process allows you to advance the ux design from a predetermined map. And know what the cornerstones of ux are.
Without knowing these steps, your chances of improving ux or achieving a good product will be very low. You can create an amazing user experience by following the steps mentioned below.
Important points in user experience design
Note that the user experience design steps can differ depending on the product type you plan to design. It would help to consider the website’s purpose and activity type when designing the user interface. For example, your website can be a company, service, store, or even dating.
In this case, the design process and the approaches you will have will be different. In user experience design one of the skills that you should acquire as a user experience designer is design thinking. Design thinking can be considered the first stage, which includes five very important subcategories.
Empathy, definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing. The Stanford School of Design defines the concept of design thinking. Applying design thinking in ux will face five stages: product definition, research, analysis and review, plan, and validation.
Product definition in user experience design
Defining the product is one of the most important steps in designing its user experience. This definition should be addressed before creating any product. Before creating and producing products, there must be a suitable ground for their creation. Of course, this field’s existence is important and must also be understood correctly.
In user experience design, defining your product includes stakeholder interviews, value proposition mapping, and conceptual design. In the interview section with shareholders, business goals and the reason for the importance of the product are discussed. While in proposition mapping, product values are discussed. And it is checked who uses it and for what reason.
In the concept design, a preliminary model of the product that will be created in the future will be made. An example that can be mentioned in this regard is the construction of mockups of construction projects before starting construction. Note that these steps will take place by organizing a meeting called the start of the project and with the presence of key design team members, shareholders, management, etc.
This meeting discusses team structure, communication channels, and stakeholders’ expectations. The team structure also deals with the members who will develop the product. While in the topic of communication channels, how to work and interact with each other is discussed. In the expectations of the beneficiaries, issues such as the possible measurement of success and the amount of profit are examined.
Product research
In user experience design, it will be the research stage after the team members are identified and the idea is defined. This section includes two basic steps, user research and market research. In design thinking, you should consider this investment stage and avoid spending time and money on it.
Depending on the complexity of the product, its type, available resources, and timing, research can have different stages in user experience design. An in-depth interview with people is one of these parts. Keep in mind that to achieve a great product, you must also have a great understanding of users and their needs.
The mentioned interviews provide qualitative data regarding the target audience, their needs, desires, fears, and motivations that lead them to use the product. If the research becomes competitive, it will lead to a correct understanding of industry standards and product opportunities in its niche.
Analyze
In the analysis stage, the data obtained in the previous stages are examined to conclude what the users need from what the users think. At this stage, the designers will conclude after checking the truth or falsity of the most important assumptions of the team. What stages does analysis in ux design include?
Creating user personas is one of the steps we will address in the analysis process. The persona includes stories and biographies of different users and somehow categorizes users. Creating a persona helps all users to be considered, and no group is left out. A persona can represent the users you met during the interview and includes explanations about the user’s personality, age, gender, motivation, etc.
It is necessary to think about creating stories for users in this process. User stories make the designer look at interactions from the user’s point of view. Adapting user personas and creating stories will lead to more interaction between users and your products. In this regard, each story should lead users to the following structure.
User experience design
In the design of user experience, it is time for the design stage to determine the demands, needs, and expectations of new users. At this stage, each design group team focuses on different activities. Among them, IA information architecture and UI design can be mentioned. The active participation of all team members determines how close the final design is to the original idea. Note that you may have to go back and repeat some steps during the design process.
In the initial design, you can get help from drawing the product idea on paper and digital tools. This step is the easiest and fastest way to objectify your mental ideas. It also helps the design team to have a very wide collection to choose from before starting production, and so to speak, their hands are open.
Also, creating a wireframe helps the design team members to be aware of the main structure of the pages and their different sections. The wireframe can be compared to the spine of the body or the concrete skeleton of a building. To make a wireframe, you need to think about user interface design training with adobe xd. Of course, other programs can help you reach this stage. Using this software, you can also display the connection between the pages in separate mockups.
Validation
This stage can be considered a portfolio of all the activities performed in the previous stages. Using the validation stage, you will check whether the designs performed for the users have the required functionality. One of the popular ways to measure validation is to use the product continuously. Doing this allows you to find its flaws and take steps to improve them easily.