The process of our dreams
It’s fascinating to see how user experience (UX) spans so many areas, yet it can sometimes limit designers’ perspectives on their own process. UX is often portrayed as a step-by-step formula: follow steps a, b, and c, and voilà — a finished product. However, UX work demands a broader strategic view that goes beyond design itself, requiring cross-functional collaboration and the flexibility to adapt to each project’s unique challenges and objectives.
For those working in tech, it’s common to see new ideas emerging constantly, creating an environment where quick trial and error is essential for developing relevant solutions. In such a fast-paced setting, the “ideal design process” often takes a back seat, which sometimes led me to question whether I was truly delivering value. As I worked on more projects, I began to realize that the design value lies not only in following ideal processes but in the ability for us as designers to apply solutions that align with a specific scenario. This sometimes means breaking away from traditional methods to tailor our work to the situation.
Design as a practice
Designers engage with multiple phases of a product’s lifecycle, from exploring functionalities to building prototypes and testing. This diversity reflects the multidisciplinary nature of generalist designers. As the Norman Nielsen Group outlines, Design Thinking is a foundational methodology encompassing three key macro processes: Understand, Explore, and Materialize. (Image 1)
Image 1: Iteration in the Design Thinking Process: Understand, Explore, Materialize. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/
With that in mind, I always seek to understand the product’s current phase and the team’s design maturity before starting from step 1. This understanding prevents the imposition of methodologies that may not fit with the available time frame and helps ensure we deliver value that is aligned with project expectations. As Tim Brown (2009, p. 19) explains: “Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” This approach allows us to tailor methods to the specific realities of the project, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment.
Challenges and Barriers
The most common challenges that I see myself facing while a designer is knowing when and how to ask the right questions at the right time in an environment that may have a strict time, multidisciplinary team that may or may not have worked alongside designers. I always focus on delivering my best, having the scenario in mind.
Observing different teams, products, and approaches with a critical eye has shown me that the ability to question assumptions, evaluate evidence, and consider multiple perspectives is less about following rigid processes and more about adopting an analytical, flexible stance. This mindset is essential for uncovering the real problem and finding solutions that go beyond obvious answers.
Approaching a real case
Understanding the scenario
In this case I was brought in to help create a value proposition app that aimed to solidify the concept that later would be present to the board members with a timeline of two months.
The client was a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative dedicated to supporting agriculture and rural communities. The company relationship managers were facing challenges with inconsistent procedures and manual handoffs that slowed things down. The focus was to attack this problem and increase efficiency in the process. The goal was to create a comprehensive tool that would integrate marketing intelligence, real-time data, consolidated farm financials, and scenario analysis, making it easier for them to make quick, informed decisions.
What really stood out was how well prepared the client was coming in with an informed goal, problem, and a set of resources that help to inform it. This made it easier for me to identify where to start designing and making deliveries aligned with the scenario. They also provided a ton of useful documents with accurate data, which is a huge plus since that doesn’t always happen. Overall, this strong collaboration was really key for the fast evolution of the process.
Method
Defining the method based on the briefing may seem obvious, but I can’t skip mentioning that this is one of the most important parts of the process. Making sure that expectations are aligned can make a difference to ensure client satisfaction and informed deliverables.
Given the tight deadline of two months to design the role application and deliver a clickable prototype, a structured approach was adopted, including bi-weekly meetings with the client to ensure alignment during the process. Since the prototype in this project was serving as a proof of concept I’ve managed to combine aspects of the company guideline with open source components to move with the screen in a fast-pace.
With this scenario in mind I’ve managed to follow a series of steps detailed down below in order to deliver in time and match client requirements.
1. Map the flow and set wireframes
Q&A and map the user journey
- Why a mobile application?
- How does the end-to-end as-is process work?
- Which process are we focusing on?
- What do we aim to achieve the final solution?
Diagraming and initial wireframes (Image 2 and 3)
Image 2: Figma initial scratch
Image 3: Wireframes in Figma
2. High fidelity prototypes
The high fidelity prototypes process was embodied by having constant feedback sessions alongside stakeholders, which helped me to go in the right direction. (Image 4)
Image 4: Home page Hi-fidelity designs in Figma
3. Deliverables
During this step, I received help from client members to test the interface with the target audience and receive key feedback during our meetings.
The final step was to connect the flows and deliver a clickable prototype for the board presentation.
Image 5: Hi-fidelity designs + clickable designs in Figma
Even though clickable prototypes aren’t usually seen as the first step of the design process and I dare to say that it isn’t the most recommended approach to make, I’ve decided to bring this project as an example to illustrate how different approaches have their purpose and value. Here by offering an interactive representation of the product, the prototypes help bridge the gap between ideas and execution, enabling stakeholders to visualize functionality and user experience before the final product is finally defined and built, saving time and resources from the client, facilitating stronger buy-in from board members and investors. Ultimately, the approach here helped to enhance communication, collaboration, and engagement, providing a significant edge in the product launch process.
