Develop
Diverge to ideate multiple solutions for testing. Iteration enables learning and refinement, with a movement towards defining an optimal solution.
Design principles
Design principles are a set of guidelines, typically in the form of a series of statements, helping guide design decisions in an objective way. They are helpful when critiquing a design, moving from subjective view points, to one centred on adherence to key principles.
Your design principles should be grounded in user research and aligned to user needs. They are based on how the design should best serve the user. Each principle should also have a clear point of view to enable decision to be made from them. A great examples of design principles are those set by Government Digital Service.
Ideation
As a means of diverging within the Double Diamond, it is important to generate multiple ideas and solutions to the design problem. Typically, the process will move from user flows to interface sketches using wireflows, before Design Studio ideation which focuses on the biggest design challenges.
Wireflows
Having created user flows and tested the user journey through the product, the next stage is to move onto the product interface. Wireflows are a combination of user flows and wireframes, translating the user flow into basic interface sketches.
User flows and the sitemap inform the pages required for your product and how the user will proceed from one to another. The wireflows are usually a simple thumbnail wireframe sketch. The sketch is purposely low fidelity and only illustrates the core functions and interaction of each interface view.
Design studio
Design studio is a collaborative UX workshop that combines ideation and critique, moving from divergent to convergent thinking, to define a design solution. These are typically run for the key design challenge of a product, identified through the process of solution ideation. The goal of Design Studio is to work as a cross-functional team, bringing in different perspectives to deliver bigger and better ideas. It also helps to enhance the teams understanding and ownership of the problem and its solution. The result is an outcome greater than working in silos.
Design Studios follow a strict process:
- Problem definition
- Individual idea generation
- Presentation and critique
- Iterate and refine, in groups.
- Vote.
The result will likely not be a final design, but rather an agreed design direction which can be fleshed out further by the UX Design team. It is important to agree on next steps at the end of your Design Studio, defining how the outputs will be used. Typically the output should inform key screens of a low fidelity prototype.
Sessions will be run on a formal or informal basis, depending on the problem and stage of the design process or project. They can be run over a full week, a single day or a couple of hours. But will always require attendance from your wider team.
User testing
User testing is a structured observation of a user interacting with your product. The objective is to set a scenario and watch how they complete tasks through your prototype, with the intention of understanding how easy it is to use and where improvements might be made.
The testing process involves recruiting representative users, setting a series of tasks and observing how well users are able to complete them. Critically, users need to solve problems on their own to ensure robust observations and results. The role of the moderator is to manage the sessions, setting expectations, sharing tasks, providing relevant prompts where required and recording observations. Typically, testing on five participants is sufficient to identify patterns and make informed decisions.
As with user interviews, user testing involves the use of a discussion guide. It will broadly consist of an introduction to the session and process, followed by a series of test scenarios for the user to work through. With each round of testing comes feedback, from which patterns are identified to inform areas to make change. As with user research synthesis, affinity mapping can be used to correlate insights across tests and identify patterns between participants. This process, through increased levels of design fidelity, ensures that design decisions are validated by users, and features refined before a product is released.