UX Methodologies

It is essential to stay current in the design world. While the world is competing on the same ideas to capture a bigger market, the success is no longer the big idea, but its execution. User centered design is now the essential tool every leading company uses to stay current and achieve success. UXUI design and using UX methods qualify excellence in industry design.

When it comes to brainstorming, organizing, designing, and breaking down a project there are many, many, many UX methods to use when you focus on user centric design. There are the traditional methods to use, there are the abstract, there are the funky trendy methods, and there are the essential methods to use. I am going to discuss the methods I use when time, schedules, and projects allow. Depending upon the project and the company the more methods you can use, the more your designs will be proven user centric.

The below methods include a brief overview, and are laid out in operational order. These are what I consider THE fundamentals of achieving the most successful user centered design:

Comparative/Competitive Analysis- excel spreadsheet the relevant data the market has. Search domestic and global. You can also compare measurements of all aspects of their website/app and see if it aligns to what you are creating.

Interviews/Questionnaires – the most important data that drives your user centered design. From your pre determined questions document and report on every note or comment they made. Organize, report, and use this data !

Data Analytics – use as much information as possible. Pull reports, mark the trends, and analyze the data. Even bad data is good data. All data is good data.

Qualitative/Quantitative data assessment – get your data organized and break it down into qualitative data points and quantitative data points.

Affinity Diagraming – Taking the wants, needs, and pain points from the interviews/questionnaires determine your "i" statements. Buy stacks of sticky notes !

Persona creation – from the affinity diagram you are able to see who your target audience is, what they need, what their desires are, and this helps you see how to design for them.

Card sorting – What do the users believe the pages, titles, and layout should be. Let them lay it out the cards on the table as a site map. Site Map – condense, organize, and eliminate an unnecessary topics/pages. Use your data from card sorting and analyze what the users would want to see.

Mood Boarding - determine the look and feel. Compile color palettes, typography, images, and/or textures you want to visually convey with your design. Moscow method- break up your data and get to the bottom of the MVP. Decide on what are the must haves, would be nice, nice but not necessary, and not necessary

Storyboarding – draw out a desired story that one of your users might do from start to finish. Highlight how they feel, what they desire, and what they don't.

User Journey mapping – compare using your product to not using your product by using a journey map. XY grids are helpful

Nielson’s Heuristic evaluation- the godfather of user centered design applies psychology to design thinking. His methods are instrumental when evaluating your own work.

Task Analysis – layout a specific task and see if your user can follow it from A to Z. Determine all the steps necessary to complete a task.

Taxonomy assessment – Do you have lot of items, numerous topics, products, or content? Organize it and setup your naming conventions. Excel spreadsheet are helpful

Design Charettes – Use the data points provided, using current design trends, in a group setting, follow the timelines and use your pencils for some quick design iterations. This will help you achieve a team approved layout.

Visual Design mockups – take your design iterations from the charettes and draft some low fidelity or high fidelity mockups.

Prototyping – Setup either low fidelity or high fidelity prototypes using paper or digital designs. Z method- assess your visual layout in a z shape movement. This is how we naturally glance at any design. Does the hierarchy and layout follow the z pattern.

Usability testing – Create a script, record your users (!), give them a set task, report on the findings and then….

Redesigning – use your data from the usability testing. It is essential to make the changes your users want and need. Retest your changes. If time allows retest several rounds, report it, and document it.

It is understandable one cannot complete every method listed above due short deadlines, but some are absolutely essential for the design and layout. I have highlighted what I consider THE essential steps with a blue color. I encourage every reader to research and/or buy books on each method to fully understand the method in detail before implementation. These are just overviews.

The more restricted your methods, the less UX design there is, which is the furthest point from understanding your users and target audience. It is imperative to use both UI design techniques and UX methods so that your business can achieve the most successful expectations, memories, stories, and relationships for your target audience. UI design and UX methods qualify excellence in industry design.