How I work
As a UX and UI designer: I love beautifully designed digital experiences. Being beautiful isn't enough though, they also need to be useful and easy to navigate so people can achieve their goal without getting lost and confused along the way.
Briefing
The best projects start with an accurate brief. A good brief clearly articulates the problem that needs to be solved, and what the business is expecting to achieve as an outcome.
If the brief isn't clear enough, its my job to question it and make sure i properly understand these two key factors before i get started.
Understanding the problem
Using data from google analytics and other sources to understand how people are interacting with the product, and using this understanding to build personas or map user journeys to help articulate the problem to the wider team.
Competitor Research
Looking at what the competition are doing to solve the problems, and understanding how similar problems are being solved in the wider digital landscape.
Prototyping
Building quick prototypes in order to check my proposed solutions are viable and make sense. Once I'm happy with something and feel like it works, I always do user testing. If I can't do this with real customers, then I'll ask colleagues around the office to carry out tasks with the prototype to make sure it makes sense.
Designing the UI
I always used to describe this as colouring in the lines after wire-framing: but it's so much more than that. This is where you bring the brand to life, ensure the journey is smooth, enjoyable and accessible. This is where you use the brand personality to drive the users eye and attention to where it is needed most.
Testing
Testing... testing... testing. Yep, it's that important. What I've learned over the years, is no matter how standard or simple to use something appears, people can and will get stuck. The earlier you find these sticking points, the easier the problem is to solve.
Once things are released into the wild, I like to use tools such as Crazy Egg to understand how the site is working and how can be improved.
Constant beta
I think i've stolen this from Google, but I've always liked the idea of constant beta. The old phrase 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' has always bothered me: There's very few things that are perfect and can't be improved upon. I always strive to make something better.
