Current Design Process
2022, Research, UX design, Branding, UI Design, New York
Scope:
Research & Strategy
Ideation & Mapping
Wireframing & Prototyping
Branding & UI Design
This is a snippet of my current work flow illustrating my experience with various aspects of Product Design. Due to confidentiality, I’m using different projects I worked on for different sections of the design process.
These projects are done in collaboration with Product Design, Project Management, Strategy and Branding Design teams. I lead the Product Design team from research to the end of lo-fi prototypes, and oversee through completion of UI design.
Role:
UX Lead
Team:
Product Design
Project Management
Branding
Discovery
To start off the projects, our team conducts a series of MVP workshops with our clients to determine their needs, their current pain point, their goals of the projects, as well as success metrics. This provides our team with a high-level understanding of the project.
Image: using post-it notes to group and highlight user needs during a MVP workshop
Research
We then research the clients’ current digital products and audit competitors and industry best practices. We sometimes survey user preferences and conduct usability testing to gain insight to their perspective. The process furthers our understanding of strategies that have worked or not worked in the past, in preparation of devising our own strategy.
Images: slides of market research, competitor analysis and user demographics
Ideation
Our team compiles the discussion points into user-level details in the form of user stories. This process focuses on functionality, user interaction and the value we create for each interaction. Additionally, it serves as a checklist for development milestones and the desired functionality.
Image: Example of a user stories document
Mapping & Scoping
As the first step of design, we use maps and flows to illustrate the top level structure and overall navigation of the product. The diagrams showcase the linkage between different sections and pages of the platform, and help all parties to visualize the architecture and pathways.
Image: Example of a sitemap
Wireframing
We create wireframes and responsive lo-fi prototypes to showcase the layout and interactions to fully transcribe product needs and strategy into design. The prototypes act as structural blueprints of the product, connecting information architecture to its visual design. This process also identifies and clarifies the components needed for the project.
Video: Examples of wireframes, each page represents a different project
Branding
Our team audits and inspect current branding metrics and insights to create a baseline evaluation. We establish a set of brand guidelines that provides direction on colors, typography, logo, copy and general brand identity of the product. These guidelines are used for higher fidelity prototypes to elevate user experience.
Collage: A mood board showcasing our team’s branding directions with internal notes
UI Design
We conclude the design phase of the projects with interactive high fidelity prototypes that closely represent the actual user interface. The hi-fi prototypes carry out the layout, user experience and branding elements from previous stages, and create a holistic mockup with all aspects for final implementation and development.
Images: Examples of high fidelity prototypes