UX (User Experience) Design Process and Stages

The UX design processes are the steps a designer takes to turn an idea into a usable and friendly user interface.

The designer has to go through stages of the design process to be able to turn the idea into a usable and friendly user interface.

Some of the stages involve the following:

1. Define

   Here, the designer defines the following;

   √ What product needs to be created

   √ Why the product needs to be created

   √ Who this product is created for

   √ What problem does the product solve?

2. Research

   Here, the designer can gain a deeper understanding of users and their needs in the above questions in stage 1 through the forms of;

   √ Interviews from target users

   √ Reaching out to users directly

   √ Observation of body language during interviews √ Through existing data and feedback

   √ Going through the journey map of a user to know how they interact with a user

   √ Looking out at industry trends, and lots more.

3. Analysis

   The designer with stakeholders and other members of the team decides what to do with the information gathered from the research toward building a product that will be user-friendly. The designer develops some sketches that will help in the design stage, such as:

   √ User Personas

   √ User Stories

   √ Wireframes, etc

4. Design

   Here, the designer comes up with visual ideas on how to solve the problem discovered during the research stage. A lot of brainstorming is done here. The designer thinks of things such as:

   √ The overall layout

   √ Ease of Navigation

   √ Specific elements on each page, etc

5. Prototyping

   This will give the designer the experience to know what is working and what is working as prototyping gives a better understanding of how users interact with the product, website, or application while it's in the design and development process. They can be created with some tools such as:

   √ Figma

   √ Adobe XD

   √ InVision, etc

6. Testing

   This helps to identify any area that needs improvement as it will be tested with users before it is launched.

7. Launch

   After the product is tested by users and necessary iterations are made, the product can be launched.

8. Iteration

   This involves a series of steps that you repeat, tweaking and improving your product with each cycle as the process is not done.