Principles
Empathy
I like to build with the user in mind at all times. If I can empathise, then I can advocate for a solution that people actually need.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness and intentionality go hand in hand. At every step of the process. I am mindful that I’m still solving the right problem and ensure all design decisions are deliberate.
Fail Fast - Experimentation
Fail Fast doesn’t imply that failure is good, in fact the idea behind it has nothing to do with failure in the slightest. It’s more about trying things out quickly, without knowing if they’ll work, then assessing the results. Really, it’s a structured way to experiment.
Aesthetics
I adore visual design. Creating high fidelity prototypes and designs is my happy place and brings me a lot of joy. I tend to express this love through building design systems.
Process
Define requirements
1
The first step I take is usually to define the general business needs, requirements for the project, understand the deliverables, timeline and expectations. It’s important to always stay on the same page with the rest of the team. At this step, I like to jot down my own hypothesis for with I expect the problem might be.
Discover the issues
2
During this phase, I collect information, talk to people and explore the problem space. I will also look into user reports, and understand why the product came to be the way it is. If user research isn’t within the budget or allocated time, I’ll try to conduct ad hoc guerrilla interviews to avoid designing blind.
Interpret the results
3
The interpretation phase allows me to define the users, their needs and pain points. Personas, journey maps, story boards and problem statements can be defined or redefined. At this stage, I set out our goals and the metrics we want to hit for success. This phase is always very insightful.
Ideate over solutions
4
The ideation phase is a lot of fun for me! I like to bring in developers, other designers, stake holders and customer supports to an ideation session to explore different options. I like to let my mind go wild and come up with as many solutions as I can. I strive for quantity at this stage.
Prototype
5
In this phase, I will create the interactive prototype. It will likely be a hi-fi Figma prototype or even an interactive website. The level of details and fidelity depends on how far along int he process I am what I want to test.
Test, iterate, repeat
6
In this final phase, I will test the prototype with users. Sometimes it will be a quick guerrilla test, while other times it may be a fully fledged usability test session. The test results will help us understand what needs to be changed and fixed.
Philosophies
Development
My solid knowledge of HTML and CSS, allows me to speak the language of the developers I work with. The importance of understanding and communicating with you team can never be emphasised enough. Knowing how to code helps me to grasp the problems the developers on my team face to a greater degree, which helps me to explain precisely how I intended the design to look and behave.
Collaboration
I believe designers shouldn’t work in silos, so trying to bring the team together as early and as regular as possible is something I advocate. I enjoy collaborating, gaining insights and sharing knowledge across the team, this type of transparency will only enhance the designs and elevate your team in the process.