Customer Interviews
Determine the pain points of new and existing customers, define the problems they are facing and learn about the solutions that are currently using.
Stakeholder Interviews
Meet with product managers, subject matter experts and engineering leads to gain domain knowledge, determine what the business objectives are and understand the technical limitations.
Competitive Reviews
Evaluate the competition’s strengths and weaknesses, and document features of competitors products.
Tasks
Either as user stories, problem statements or as a requirements document, define the tasks that users will want to accomplish with the
product.
Features
Knowing what users want to do segues into features that allow user to accomplish those tasks.
Process Flows
Process flows can be simple diagrams mapping out possible paths a user can take through a site or application. They
can also map out detailed interactions, showing not screens but states of screens.
Sketches
Define what UI elements are required for each screen or interaction, quickly working out UI problems and iterating
through possible solutions.
Wireframes
With wireframes the hierarchy of elements on each screen is established and specifics of the interaction design
take shape. The wireframes are reviewed with product managers and software engineers to ensure that
what I’m envisioning meets business objectives and is feasible.
Mockups
Finished designs that incorporate the visual design and final layout, frequently based on elements taken from a design system.
Prototypes
Depending on the level of detail required, prototypes can be basic click-throughs or simulate how the finished product
will behave.
Baseline Usability Testing
When updating or redesigning an existing product or feature, I run tests on the current user
experience to not only identify usability problems but also to establish a baseline to compare later tests to.
Usability Testing on Wireframes, Mockups and Prototypes
Following a user-centered process, I set up formal tests or informal reviews with
users to spot usability problems in my designs before software engineering starts.
Information gathered in these tests is incorporated into the design.
Analytics
Post launch I use web analytics to gauge feature adoption spot drop-offs during workflows.