Process

1. Establish Goals
2. Brainstorm
3. Research
4. Wire-frame
5. Design & Compose
6. Produce & Develop
7. Test & Iterate

I am a big fan of the double diamond approach that focus on divergence and convergence.

Sometimes the double diamond can look a little more like this…

Establish high-level needs, wants and goals.

Brainstorm and collaborate on new ideas and solutions. One tool to facilitate sessions is the use of mind-mapping.

Research and explore current trends, settings and situation. Research can take many different forms from surveys, and studies to user interactions and usability testing.

Wire-frame and high level comps. Ensure that strong user flow and clarity will be maintained. Wire-frames are black and white line art mockups that show basic content structure and placement. Getting the content, flow and general layout confirmed early in the process can save a lot of design and development time in the next phases of the project.

Design compositions. These are static design layouts that show what the product will look like.

Produce and develop. This involves creating final deliverables, and building or implementing the site or project into the desired platform or web service.

Test and Iterate. This often involves QA, user testing, bug fixes, cross browser and mobile device testing.