My User Centred Design Process

Guy Carberry, 23 November 2021

Every user centred design professional has a goto set of tools and methods for getting the most from the tasks they have been set. This article provides a little insight into mine.

It's always an interesting challenge to attempt to illustrate a non-linear process without the use of a diagram but I thought I'd give it a go:

Identify and understand the problem
Test with users
Design possible solutions
Test with users
Develop the solution
Test with users
Refine the solution
Launch the solution
Test with users
Improve the solution

Accepting that testing with users is a fundamental part of every stage, we can refine the list into five stage gates:

Understand the problem
Design possible solutions
Develop the solution
Launch the solution
Improve the solution

Or, Understand > Design > Develop > Launch > Improve.

Let's look at each of the stages in detail.

Understand the problem

In this first stage we want to know

Is there a clear articulation of the problem we need to solve?
Who will benefit from the solution? Why?
Who are the users?
What do we know about the users? What are their needs and expectations?
How have other organisations tackled the same or similar problems?
Is this something the team should be taking further?

Techniques employed at this stage include

Competitor / comparative analysis
Empathy mapping workshops
User needs and expectations audit and analysis
Search log analysis
Sentiment mining from CRM, feedback, forums and social media
Stakeholder interviews
User interviews
Surveys
Desk research
Customer journey mapping (the 'as is')
User profiles or persona creation
Benchmarking existing solutions

Design possible solutions

In the design stage we take all of the outputs from the previous stage and think about all the ways we can solve the problem. Often we won't get to this stage at all if the problem has not been clearly identified.

Here we may use any of the following techniques:

Group design sessions with a number of designers, including key stakeholders and end users.
Divergent and convergent design activities.
Customer journey mapping (the 'to be')
Low-fidelity wireframing
Prototyping e.g. in Sketch/Invision, Figma or HTML protosites
Card sorting / tree testing activities
Emotional response testing
Usability testing
Flash testing
Stakeholder / user review and critique workshops

Develop the solution

At this stage we are ready to commit to technical development. This is where costs can escalate so we ensure that there are clear measures of success and a reliable agile development methodology in place. We want to deliver regular, incremental potentially deployable increments of value. That is, functionality that we can make live and once again test with users.

The most active user research technique employed at this stage is face to face or remote usability and accessibility testing. This helps us identify unforeseen issues that only present themselves once a more fully formed service or product starts to emerge.

This stage is iterative with each UX test session further informing changes to the product backlog.

Launch the solution

We need to ensure that sufficient mechanisms for capturing and evaluating user behaviour and sentiment are in place at the moment of launch. This includes:

Google (or equiv.) analytics
Feedback / sentiment capture mechanisms
A/B or multivariate software
Automated UX tools such as User Zoom

We also need to be clear on how we will be alerted to UX issues and how we will go about prioritising and fixing them.

Improve the solution

Committing to continuous improvement will ensure that your product or service is able to evolve to better meet user needs and expectations as time progresses. Often user needs remain fairly constant. Their expectations about how those needs should be met changes over time. We need to keep checking in with users as well as keeping an eye on the competition. As long as there is commitment to continuous improvement it should also be possible to continue to innovate and bring value to both users and the business alike.