Understanding the design process: A simple step-by-step guide

The design process is a series of steps designers use to develop products. The goal of this process is to identify and solve problems through key design stages, which results in a better end product.

UI and UX designers are among the most common to use the UI and UX design process, as they’re responsible for creating interfaces that are both user-friendly and intuitive. However, any team responsible for developing and launching a new product will use the design thinking process to guide their product strategy.

Even graphic designers use the design process, whether they’re creating graphics for a website or coming up with graphics for a new marketing campaign.

Understanding the individual stages of the design process makes it easier to see how it works in action. Below, we’ll break down the five key design process steps:

Whether you’re designing a product, a UI, or a graphic, it’s important to think about who you’re designing for. You want your finished product to be functional for users, which is why the design process starts with collecting information about those users.

There are several strategies you can use to learn more about who you’re designing your product for. You can interview your target audience to learn about what they’re looking for in a product, or you can observe users to get a better understanding of how they use a product or service.

User journey mapping can also help drive the decision-making process. User journey maps offer a visual representation of each step users take when using a product or service, enabling you to design a more streamlined user experience.

Once you’ve gained insight into your users and how they interact with products and services, it’s time to narrow down that information to create an actionable problem statement. This problem statement plays a key role in creating a detailed action plan.

Look at your user journey maps, interviews, and observations to find common problems among users. For instance, you might notice that users frequently misclick a button in your app or complain about a specific aspect of your product. 

Identify a problem statement that everyone agrees on and use it as the framework for improving your product or service. Everyone should be aligned before you begin ideating.

Ideation is one of the less structured but essential stages of the design process. At this point, you’re simply trying to come up with a wide range of ideas that could potentially improve your product or solve your problem statement. 

It’s important to be creative and open-minded at this stage, even if some ideas are scrapped going forward. How you come up with the best ideas will depend on the brainstorming technique you use.

For example, you can create a mind map with your problem statement as the central topic. With group brainstorming sessions, brainwriting or round robin brainstorming might be a better solution. 

As long as you’re working as a team to generate ideas, the brainstorming method you choose isn’t particularly important.

The prototype stage is where you bring your ideas to life. Now that you’ve got a detailed list of ideas, you can start creating mockups or basic models of those ideas.

Creating a mockup is simple. Mockups are just a static representation of your ideas, so they don’t need to be functional or interactive. The goal is to create a non-functional visual representation of your product or UI before proceeding to the next step. 

You can use any graphic design software to create mockups.

While mockups can be better for time management, you can also create basic models of some of your simpler ideas. These models don’t have to be fully functional, but they should function enough to validate your idea.

The final stage of the design process is testing your design with stakeholders and users. Testing allows you to validate your ideas based on real user feedback. 

When you’re testing a product, it’s important to set clear test parameters and create a natural test environment. Users shouldn’t know what you’re attempting to validate with each test. 

Once you’ve defined your test parameters, you can create an online sign-up form or test your idea with stakeholders.

The testing stage is meant to help you refine your prototype. Refinement is one of the most crucial project management phases, so don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time, as using the feedback you collect to fine-tune your ideas is all part of the process.

An effective design process starts with foundational ideas rooted in collaboration and flexibility. Learn more about the key aspects of an effective design process below.

Every product should be designed with the end user’s needs, behaviors, and goals in mind. This starts with researching to learn more about your target audience and what they’re looking for in a product.

Designing with the user in mind also aids in project planning. When you’re making empathy-driven decisions based on what you know about the end user, you have clear direction throughout the product design cycle.

Setting goals is an essential aspect of the design thinking process, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to reach those goals right away. Your first attempt at a design isn’t going to be perfect, which is why iteration and refinement play such vital roles throughout the process.

If an idea doesn’t work as intended after testing, use the feedback you collect to refine it. There’s always room for improvement when you’re designing a new product, so continuous iteration is essential.

To create the best finished product, you need input from various teams and stakeholders. Throughout the design process, it’s important to collect feedback from cross-functional teams and use that to strengthen your ideas.

Maintaining open communication is a big part of collaborating throughout the design process. Using centralized platforms, such as Jira, allow teams to submit and review goals and feedback, making it easy for everyone to stay in the loop.

The design process is often unpredictable, so you need to be ready to adapt when it’s necessary. As you collect feedback, learn new information, and face obstacles, ensure that your team has the flexibility to adapt and make changes to your design.

Being flexible isn’t about lacking structure, but rather creating a flexible structure that you can change based on the situation.

Since you’re designing for a specific audience, collecting feedback from that audience is one of the most important things you can do. User feedback allows you to learn how you can tailor your product to users’ needs and preferences.

You should also collect feedback from internal stakeholders and use that to drive the design process.

A structured design process helps improve alignment across product, design, marketing, and engineering teams. Teams should maintain open communication throughout the entire process to ensure everyone is working toward a common set of goals.

Using a shared design framework helps prevent miscommunication and reduces the risk of designs having to be reworked.

Think about a brand preparing to launch a new marketing campaign across various platforms. Before launching the campaign, the company spends countless hours brainstorming key messages, developing creative mockups, and A/B testing different versions to ensure the end result is successful. 

This iterative process helps the marketing team refine the campaign before the full rollout.

App developers use the UI design process all the time. If users regularly struggle to contact support through the app or find specific features, this information can be used to redesign the UI, making those features more accessible.

Templates offer a simple way to maintain structured, efficient workflows. Here are three templates that can help you improve your design process:

1. Jira Web Design Process template

The Jira Web Design Process template helps with planning, building, and launching websites. It has built-in steps for ideation, review, and QA so that you can design, refine, and launch a functional and user-friendly website.

2. Jira Project Management for Marketers template

This Jira Project Management template makes marketing with Jira easy, allowing you to manage campaign design work. Its features include task tracking, creative approvals, and timelines to help keep your campaign on track.

3. Jira Design Service Management template

You can use the Jira Design Service Management template to simplify design request intake and delivery, creating a seamless connection between your design teams and other internal teams. This template helps improve visibility, prioritization, and accountability for internal teams.

Following the design process makes it easier to deliver a successful finished product. Jira allows you to manage tasks, track progress, and easily collaborate with internal teams, giving you the tools you need to streamline the design process.

With Jira, you can keep everyone on the same page with real-time updates that help improve project visibility and simplify project management. Jira also supports iterative work, allowing internal teams to collaborate and share ideas and mockups.

Try Jira today to discover how simple the design thinking process can be.