Analysis
Briefing of the requirements and the products that were designed before: UX Concept, UX Architecture, Styling.
If the UI Designer was involved in the preceding stages of the project then this step can be skipped.
UI Design in waterfall
With all the research, concept and architecture work done, there is still a lot of work to do to get to a high quality product. All the work before can be capped off by an excellent UI design. It can also be rendered worthless if the UI design is shoddy.
In a scrum setting, the UI designer works with the development team to incrementally create the product. That means that the designer determines, with the product owner and the team, which screens or templates to work on in any particular sprint.
The upside to this way of working is that designers are involved in the entire process, so that they are able to help developers and product owners making micro decisions every step of the way.
As a team, rather than as individual designers, they are responsible for the end product.
Why
- Create the actual designs that developers need.
Who
- UI Designer
Conditions
- There is a UX Concept.
- There is a UX Architecture.
- A style has been determined for the product.
Client effort
- Provide feedback on design versions.
- Process the designs into the actual product.
- Accept final designs.
Skills involved
- Create low fidelity screen designs.
- Create high fidelity screen designs.
- Wireframe.
- Visual design skills (structure + expression).
Steps
01
02
Sprint planning
Join the development team for sprint planning in each sprint to determine the design steps to be made in the upcoming sprint.
03
Design
Design the needed screens or templates based on the requirements and the products that were designed before.
04
Review
Discuss the designs with the product owner for feedback.
05
Adjustments
Refine and adjust the designs based on the feedback from the previous step.
06
Deliver
Process feedback, prepare for delivery and deliver.
--
And Repeat
Designers are not necessary in every sprint of the development process, but it's a good idea to keep them as part of the team until the very end. Of course, the last stages of development are tests (not user tests), where a designer is no longer doing any design work. However, safeguarding the design might mean that there is still minor work to be done during or shortly after acceptance tests.
Deliverable
De deliverables of the UI Design are:
- Designs in a design tool, eg. Figma or Sketch. The designs are responsive. A design was created for 2 resolutions.
- Files for front end development in Zeplin.
