Every great product begins with a great foundation. Having a well-thought out design process is necessary to achieve and deliver a good product to the audience. My design process below acts as a guide, but not as a definitive step-by-step, and as every product is unique, so too is the process.
Empathize
The very first step is to understand the users and their needs. It is important to do research beforehand to get a better idea of who I will be designing for. Before creating anything, I need to understand its context for existence. Being able to empathize with the users during this step will set up a solid foundation for the entire project.
Define
Once I have gathered enough data through research during the first stage, I am now ready to start defining the problem(s). By using the data collected from the previous stage, I am able to analyze and start brainstorming. Defining the challenge acts as a catalyst for coming up with great ideas.
Ideate
After defining the problems, it's time to start figuring out solutions to the problems. During this stage, my goal is to start generating as many ideas and solutions. From there, I can give further thought into each one, in order to see which ideas would actually be helpful to solve the issues.
Wireframe & Prototype
Once I have thought about the best possible solutions identified during the first three stages, I start creating wireframes and prototypes. I use my creativity and best logic with the data collected from the past stages and start designing wireframes. The solutions are applied within the wireframes and carefully investigated to see if they are acceptable or needs improvement. If everything checks out, I move on to creating a high-fidelity prototype.
Test
Testing is an essential step in the design process because it helps teams understand whether their design works for their users. After designing a high-fidelity prototype during the last stage, I am now ready to share it with users to attain valuable feedback and also help uncover any major usability flaws. The insights collected during this stage will now be used towards improvement to help deliver the final product.
Conclusion
When it comes to designing a product, there is no one-size fits all solution. Since every product is unique, having a flexible approach is necessary to accomplish goals and solutions. Every product should often be revisited in order to improve the experience, since the world around us is constantly evolving with new practices and research.