what's up in flexers today I want to
talk about design process and process is
so important I think process is actually
the difference between a professional
who knows what they're doing and they
have a structured way to solve a problem
and somebody who is I guess an amateur
because he's like well I'll just figure
it out or I'll just give it a try and
they don't know what are the steps that
they're gonna take and they're not
really sure that the outcome is well so
actually I think that the process is
what makes the difference between when
you're just starting out and when you're
you're becoming a pro so I want to share
with you the process that I do literally
to design anything so this process that
I'm gonna explore with you right now I
use it to design website to design
product to design brands anything that I
do I do
in this way obviously there are
different actual steps and tactics for
each you know platform that I'm
designing from but the core structure of
this process is the same so let's get
started basically it's a four step
process and the first step in the
process is to actually understand what
we're trying to solve and I think a lot
of people skip that step somebody comes
to you and they're telling you well we
need to have a website and you're okay
let's yeah and you're going to write
into the actual design and arranging the
information on the page but you have to
take a minute to really really
understand what is the problem what is
the goal of the project
what they're trying to achieve with it
who is the audience who is the
competition and really really understand
what are you trying to do here and how
will a success will look like so the way
to do that is basically by doing two
things you do research and you do
interviews I guess interviews as part of
research but there's I do it them
differently so research I can usually do
on my own sitting next to the computer
browsing the internet reading about the
company reading about the competition
reading about the market you know look
at how their website looks like
currently what is the messaging what
their competition is saying what other
people are maybe talking about the
product or brand
you know online and social networks
trying to immerse myself in that world
of my client or the problem and learn as
much as I can about it and by interviews
that can be either interviewing the the
people who work in the company so trying
to see from their perspective what do
they think the company does what they're
trying to do what their goal is for the
project sometimes you get different
perspective from different people and
some interviews might be with customers
of the company that you're working with
so what are you currently frustrated in
how do you feel about this Brendon when
you're doing that as an outsider a lot
of times people will tell you stuff that
they won't be telling if you know
somebody from the actual company would
interview them so I get started on this
kind of you can call the discovery or
research phase but the goal of this
first phase is to really really
understand what you're trying to do here
the second part of the process is to id8
and that means brainstorming and coming
up with lots of ideas and the way to get
the idea is flowing I've been talking
about this a lot of the channel is you
know remove your barriers about I only
need to come up with good ideas and just
bring a lot of ideas and it's very
important to come up with a lot of ideas
because a lot of times we're you know we
have the first idea and we fell in love
with it and was like yeah let's try that
but you need to explore a lot of
different solutions and a lot of
different ideas because you know a lot
of things come after you're kind of
marinated in the project for a while I
like to break this ideation process over
a couple of days so I try to bring up
some ideas I go to rest or I take a
break from a project for one or two days
then I come back to it with fresh eyes
with fresh brain and try to come up with
a lot of ideas so if it's logos I'm just
sketching it in my notebook if it's you
know wireframes for a website I try to
sketch it out a few different layouts a
few different flows and just come up
with a lot of ideas obviously for the
next step you have to kind of narrow it
down pick up the something that you feel
at this point will best solve the
problem that you've understood at step
one step three is taken
the kind of rough idea that you have
been trying to validate it and by
validating I mean you actually present
it so you do a present if it's a client
work you do a presentation you show them
the work and you're saying here it is
here's why I did this here's the process
that I went through I did the research
here's what I discovered and I went
through a lot of ideas and I chose this
idea because I feel like X Y Zed helps
to you know solve the problem that
you've talked with me about so you
present this can be in a scenario of
client presentation another if you're in
working in a product company then the
validation might be showing this to
potential customers letting them try the
prototype or something like that doing
kind of a user research with your you
know with your rough ideas and the goal
of this part is to get feedback so if
you think you got it right the first
time
you hurt you're not gonna do a good
design you have to understand you came
up with a lot of assumptions this is the
first you know out of a lot of ideas you
came up to you think this is the best
but that's just your opinion now let's
see how the people whose problem is
supposed to serve feel about this so
your goal here is to get feedback not
just to show it to people and tell them
ha that's ready no your goal is to
listen and hear feedback so that you can
improve and the fourth step of the
process is after you've listened and
documented that feedback is actually to
refine your design and improve it and
make it better then it's ready after
you've got feedback that it's good ready
to release it or finalize it or lunch it
or whatever you're doing that's
basically the four-step process of
course the refinement you know
refinement validation might might be
more than one loop you might want to do
this a couple of times until you feel
like the result really solves the
problem really resonates with the client
or you know your target audience and
honestly you know I really I feel like
you know even though we launched our
products we send them to print we put
them online the truth is that real
design is never you know finished or
completed once it's out there you can
really start again
and seeing how can this being proven you
can go through the whole process from
the beginning again actually you should
product go through you know versions and
improvements and even brands over the
year are improved because you've got
some learning to do so you now you're
doing the research again I da ting again
and you know going through this process
again and again and every time the
product gets better gets renewed gets
fresher and you know you get a better
design in general that's basically my
four step process that I use for
everything that I do if you have a
different process let me know in the
comments below have a super day
