The process of approaching design

When I began in this career, I would jump right into Visio or design tool and start designing away. I approached problems directly with designing solutions. A couple of years later, I began to extend the myopic focus into a broader context. I now began every project with finding out what the problem is that's being solved. In my experience, product managers sometimes try to fix problems by band aiding the solution. In many cases, this is a cost-saving ploy or maybe they haven't audited the flow to see where the pain points are.

I've begun to start every project with flow audits and replicating the same experience a user may have when encountering our products. Because I work at a company that has a lot of resources in which to use, this sometimes means looking at Site Catalyst data, or digging up Customer Service call data to see where the pain points are. When applicable, I try to talk to the main users of the product to see how they use the information. I've learned that solid and thoughtful design means starting from the research and working into formulating a solution. Sometimes its as simple as rearranging how information is shown, sometimes its as complex as redesigning the entire flow.

I try to abide by the "keep it simple" rule. As a designer, you become very knowledgeable on the product you are designing, and its easy to get carried away in the complexity of it. Adding additional features sometimes seems like a benefit, until you take a step back and realize that the original goal has been lost. In the process of designing, I take a few breaks and walk around to refresh my thinking. When I get back to my desk and view my design, often I'll print it out and show one of my peers unfamiliar to the project if they understand. I do this because I think its important to have a fresh set of eyes on the design.

I believe good design should be clear even to someone unfamiliar with the project. They should look at the design and understand immediately which actions the user should take, which information is important, and what the overall goals on the page are. The next steps I take are putting the entire flow together and review with the team. I'll post on that later.