User Experience Design Process And Documentation Guide

Documentation helps product conceptual formation, design, creation, and performance measurement. However, the purpose of writing documents should not be solely for product maintenance. After all, there is no way that written things can be compared with real product experience.

As Jeff Gothelf, a brief user experience advocate, describes in an article in Smashing Magazine, the detailed deliverables that are used solely for future reference in user experience are basically useless from the completion of production. In today's simple and flexible era, the key to user experience should be the core of the product, rather than the overall delivery of the product. Whether you choose simple or detailed procedures, the key is to ensure that documents can help design forward (rather than just a lagging indicator).

Below is an overview of product design and development documentation, elements and phases. Different companies have different product development and documentation processes (such as Spotify), but many of the following deliverables are common to most companies.

The way we choose is the best way we think we can use it. You can choose from your own circumstances.

In terms of product design documentation, theory and practice are quite different. We all know the basic principles of user center design. We can also identify various research methods, prototyping stages and the overall process of documentation techniques from a variety of methods. However, you will always ask yourself this question: how to operate in practice?

In short, it is to make the document and design process complementary, rather than simply as a supplement to the design process. Before going deep into the discussion, let's take a look at the documentation work during the product design and development from a macro perspective. Below, we introduce the links between the various steps of design documentation from a practical point of view.

1. at the initial stage of product definition, you need to brainstorm with all the necessary personnel on the way the product and project are developed. Brainstorming may bring a set of start-up plans, a streamlined framework and a series of earlier concept maps and models.

2. start with research. At this stage, your team needs to perfect all the assumptions and fill in the blanks. Depending on the factors such as product complexity, time arrangement, and existing knowledge level, this stage may vary. Overall, however, it is beneficial to carry out competitive market analysis and carry out customer surveys. If you have ready-made products, censorship, heuristics, content, product background and user testing will also be helpful.

3. in the analysis phase, the product marketing data collected at the current stage can provide the basis for user characteristics, experience maps and requirements documents, such as priority based functional electronic tables and user task matrix. At this point, product definition, product priority and product plan have been defined and ready to become more formal design deliverables. During this period, continuous sketches and flow charts may also be produced.

4. the results of this stage will lead to the use of scenarios, concept maps and models, and then enter the design stage. Common document types include sketches, wireframe, prototypes, task flow charts, and design specifications. For example, the competition analysis and investigation during the investigation and analysis phase. User characteristics It will be applied to models, concept maps and usage scenarios. Conversely, these contents will affect intermediate or advanced deliverables such as wireframe, storyboard and detailed models. Some companies regard the research, analysis and design stages as a large process.

5. in Execution phase It is necessary to combine code and design resources into products that conform to design specifications.

6. in the actual product launch, we also need to rely on support records, bug reports and other analysis techniques to continue to promote product improvement through subsequent iterations and upgrading. In the subsequent production mode, it is necessary to continuously generate and monitor all kinds of data in the form of analysis and reporting to ensure the continuation of success.

7. finally, production environment Continuous measurement and iteration under the performance index table and analysis technology can ensure continuous data driven product improvement.