When it comes to UX design, we all have an opinion. As a designer, you might easily recall numerous anecdotes about interference with your creative work. My next 8 preparation tips will help guide you toward a successful UX design process outcome.
Kickstart Your UX Process: Talk About the Problems
The first 'mistake' that clients make when creating a brief for a designer is telling them what they want, rather than explaining what’s wrong. For example, what is the main reason for creating a (new) website? By clarifying this, it can become easier to bring the message of your website to the forefront.
Set Clear Goals for a Successful UX Design Process
What should the new UX design achieve? Do you have one or perhaps multiple goals? Should the website be an extension of another part of the organization? Should it serve as an information source only? A UX designer who knows what you want to achieve with your message will undoubtedly come up with a good design that will help you reach that goal.
Set Realistic Deadlines for Your UX Design Project
If you’ve ever created a web design or app yourself, you know that creativity can sometimes be difficult to constrain. As a result, designers sometimes don’t have enough time to create a good web design. In rare cases, a designer may sketch a design that immediately hits the mark during the briefing. But usually, several different drafts are needed before it's "right".
Avoid Fighting Over Personal Taste in UX Design
This can lead to unnecessary work for you as a designer. Personal taste is often a poor guide when it comes to applied design. Don’t let your personal preferences overly influence your feedback to the client regarding a web design. Also, design guidelines are often already determined.
Start with the Right Materials for UX Design
Every organization has a brand manual. This is a basis for every UX design process. If that’s forgotten, make sure to ensure that the client has the proper brand guidelines and associated graphic files at the start of the UX design process.
Talk to the Decision Makers
Make sure that the decision-makers are present at every meeting that is important for the design.
The most frustrating thing is presenting a design in detail to people who ultimately cannot make a decision. In such cases, you must make the decision yourself, providing the client with justification and further advice.
There’s a risk that they may present the design internally very differently from what you intended, and the final decision-makers might reject the design for reasons you can’t predict. At that point, there’s no turning back.
Design with the Right Content and in the Browser
I know, why not just use placeholder text? The client needs to understand that you want to present the most accurate image of the final result. Often, the client will better understand your intentions when working with actual content. You also don’t want an image just pulled from the web and pasted into a page. Not only is that unprofessional, but you also risk legal trouble if the rightful owner catches you. The client must understand that they are expected to provide content as well.
What Happens After Delivery?
But now! The design and development process of a website can be quite intense. Leading up to delivery, I have daily contact with my clients, and together we make sure everything is polished. Sometimes, after the website goes live, it suddenly goes quiet. But what happens afterward? This is, of course, partly dependent on the choices made and discussed beforehand. A wise move is to keep the management in-house. From my own experience, I know that the content of the website can quickly deteriorate.
If you have any specific questions about UX design, it might be worth asking them in a chat message! My name is Frank Thijssen, and I’m happy to assist you with your UX design needs.