My process

I am constantly updating and refining my design repertoire with in a designing thinking agile approach.

Software packages I use

Gathering requirements

It is very important to understand the objectives of the project and what goals the business needs to hit. It is also important to verify any assumptions and validate that you are using the correct metrics ignorer to build a foundation for the project to start from. At this point I normally work with business analysts and stakeholders to m are sure we collect and share thing we are designing need is required to do and why.

Competitive analytics

Having many of my own clients has taught me the important of research before jumping into design. I have gained the skills to do in depth Gap analysis between services and competing digital products. I use this step in my process to identify what can be learned from others what opportunities there are and they current state of the market to give my clients better insights into the reasons why design choices are made in the first place.

Google Analytics and SEO

Theres no point building it, if no one comes to it. And there is not point getting visitors if there is no conversion or engagement.

Having worked with Analytics teams and SEO experts and taken courses in the filed. I have come to appreciate the use of data and digital marketing. It is important to think about what metrics we are measuring and what insights can be draw from them.

I think it is a important part of a Design Thinking approach. Especially if you are trying to increase traffic, leads or conversions.

Personas

Some organisation already have alot of data and market analysis the can help create personas that help connect with your users on a personal level and identify their needs and objectives. It can help you build user empathy for users within your design team.

One of the times where this process was very helpful was when I was working in Qatar and a fast changing region with ambitious clients. Creating personas and sharing them with our team helped identify key areas that we could engage with our users better on such as Social Media.

User Stories

In many of the Agile teams I have worked in, feature and functionality planning is documented in the form of user stories. Having sounds and validated user stories for your key to designing goof user flows and thinking about edge cases.

It is a very important part of the product design lifecycle. Integrating a UX and Agile work flow can be powerful but also a complex endeavor, sounds User Stories are used helps to support task planning and scheduling and encourages crossfunctional collaboration in the projects that I have worked in.

Sketching

Sketching is a fast and simple way to get your ideas out into the real world and share them with your team. I love sketching on paper or a iPad before making wireframes and I like to . It saves a lot of time which can be used for thinking about solutions and other options.

Wireframing & Userflows

High and low fedality Wireframing is a key part of my UX workflow and it can be created fast weather for full user flows or individual screens.

“Wireframes and prototypes are the most popular type of deliverable among UX professionals. They are used to communicate (and perform usability tests on) page layouts, information hierarchy, and, in the case of interactive prototypes, interactions.” - Nielsen Norman Group

Invision, Principe and Flinto Prototypes

It is important to have a prototype so you can manually test and present something that is as close to a working app or website as possible. It is also a great way to show developers the intricate details and behaviours of complicit designs and also check what is being built in development against the prototype.

I use invision for website and responsive web apps but I used Flinto and come times Principle for native mobile apps.

Sitemaping

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Visual style guides

Visual design

I have strong background in visual design and understand the intricate obstacles and limitations of this part of the design work flow. This involves balancing brand demands and rules with platform guidelines and upstanding the many deliverables needed for development. All whilst trying to create something beautiful, understandable and delightful for users.

Visual spec documentation for development

A important part of the visual design stage is to help the hand over and understanding of deliverables to developers. I have produced many documents and files that explain and show dev how the build real apps and websites from our spec documents.

Material Design

Designing for android can be a complicated things so Google have put together nice set of guidelines. So it is important to understand and follow these guidelines in order to give your users a experience that is true to their platform and makes the most of what that platform can do. You should avoid brining interactions into Android that are from other platform.

iOS Human interface guidelines

I believe it is important to be true to platform no matter which mobile OS you are working on. I have a deep knowledge of iOS guidelines and have designing a number of complex apps on that platform.

I like to start with the on-boaring and login flows of any App I design and work my way though the rest of the app. I also like to make prototypes in Flinto which give a native experience where you can use gestures and get a realistic feel for the final app.

For more on my process you can get in touch and Ill be happy to explain more.