Deliver
Centred on the final refinement and delivery of a working solution to market. Following launch, market data is gathered to iterate and enhance the product.
Interaction design
As we move through user flows to interface design, we focus on interaction design. Defined in simple terms as the design of the interaction between users and products. Looking closely at how the product is structured and behaves and how this influences the users interaction with it.
Affordances are a critical part of user interface design. They define the possibility of an action on the interface. Affordances that are designed well should naturally lead users to the right steps for completion of their desired goal. The design of an interface will determine the affordances required and how they are arranged.
When designing an interface, it is important that we centre our approach on recognised principles to ensure we deliver a high quality of interaction.
Interface design principles
- Visibility
- Feedback
- Constraints
- Mapping
- Consistency
- Affordance
Interaction design principles
- Make it direct. Edit content in context with design patterns for in page editing, drag & drop and direct selection.
- Keep it lightweight. Reduce the effort required to interact with a site by using in context tools to leave a 'light footprint'.
- Stay on the page. Keep visitors on a page with overlays, inlays, dynamic content and in-page flow patterns.
- Provide an invitation. Help users discover site features with invitations that cue them to the next level of interaction.
- Use transitions. Learn when, why and how to use animations, cinematic effect and other transitions.
- React immediately. Provide a rich experience by using lively responses such as live search, live suggest, live previews and more.
Design systems
As the fidelity of the designs are increased, branding, colour and typography styles are applied, alongside content and copy. At this stage the focus is delivery of intuitive and considered interaction, and user interface design with purposeful and appealing use of visual styling.
It is critical that these elements are applied in a consistent way, aligned to your other products and company brand. To ensure we achieve this, a design system is used. A set of guidelines for visual elements, including typography, colours, icons and UI components.
A design system empowers both the design and engineering teams to make decisions and deliver consistent experiences. It acts as the single source of truth for the visual layer of a product. Owned by the UX design team, the system should be widely accessible. It should also be continuously refined and built out, with new UI components emerging with ongoing change and innovation. The design system enables the product team to prototype and design faster, delivering a more efficient process across the team.
Content
As this stage the UX Design team work in close collaboration with the designers responsible for production of illustration and other visual design elements.
Continued collaboration through the project with the marketing team delivers refinement on copy and content strategy. The goal is to deliver an interface that talks to the user in a simple, helpful and human way.
Launch & growth
Central to the end-to-end process is cross-functional collaboration, continuous iteration, refinement and delivery.
Product development
The handover of designs for development should be smooth, with engineering teams having been involved in key decisions throughout. It is important for the UX Design team to converse with engineering teams throughout the build phase, supporting and consulting where required. Close collaboration and strong communication is critical for a successful launch and growth of the product.
Product iteration
Inline with the build-measure-learn approach to Lean UX and Agile product development, it is critical to capture customer feedback following launch. This will enable learning to challenge or validate hypotheses. Iterations to the product can be made as a means of driving additional value to users of the product. Alongside review of analytics data, Intercom provides and excellent tool for capturing live customer data from the product.