Before I begin designing, I work with users and product team to understand the problem. We come together as a product team of researchers, engineers, architects, leads, and designers, to piece together the bigger picture, and coalesce on a vision and strategy.

I will research our intended and actual users and uncover their behavior. I focus on their wants, needs, and pain points, doing whatever it takes to gather enough information. A Blue Sky project may not have any users, yet, and we will have to identify who we want to target. An application in production may have intended users versus actual users, and we will have to find the disconnect. Each project comes with its own unique challenge and set of users.

I conduct several user and workshop activities, depending on the nature of the problem. For example, Blue Sky technology will require a different approach than an application that is already being used in the market.

Re-thinking the design of an application will also be different than fixing features. It’s important to tailor the research activities based on what we know about our users and what users we want to target.

I’ll work with the team to synthesize the research and uncover what’s working, what isn’t, and what we should develop in order to remain competitive. I’ll also work with the team to create goals, use cases scenario statements, and prioritize what we need to focus on.

Fleshing out the Use Cases

I’ll create quick and high polished storyboards of how we want the user to use the technology. These storyboards can be quick sketches to share with the team or high fidelity for presentations for stakeholders.

Concept Car Ideation

Once I have a good idea of the direction we need to go in, I will start designing the interface.

I will start by broadly ideating to get a general idea of the application’s layout, navigation, and behavior. I will share these ideas with stakeholders, users, and engineers to understand if the design is heading in the right direction.

As I collect feedback, the design will change and be retested until the desired result is achieved. It is also a good time to test new, innovative ideas that come up during this process.

Building the Logic Flow

When the design is heading in a good direction, I will work with the product manager and engineers to break the application down into features and prioritize for development.

When focusing on developing specific features for development, I will start by creating a step-by-step flow of how the feature will be used. Flows are used to build click-by-click walkthroughs, specs, prototypes, and give an overview of the design to review with engineering.

Build Design Specs

From these flows, I will build click-by-click walkthroughs that will be presented to the product team for review. These wireframes will also be used to create specs for engineering.

If a pattern library is available, I will create these storyboards in detail. If the visual design has not been developed, the wireframes will be more abstract.

Prototype and Test

For user testing, I will take these storyboards and build prototypes using InVision. I will also create prototypes to explain complex interactions and navigation.

Visual Design & Asset Building

After the wireframing and storyboarding process, I will apply the visual design and present to the product team for review.

Marketing Assets

And finally, once the application is ready for launch, I will photoshop it into images to be used for marketing, conferences, and presentations.