5 Phases for the UX designer

Hey, in this video we're gonna look at the five phases,  uh, for being a UX designer. Now, the first is setting the objectives,  then it's doing the research, making a markup,  doing some testing, and then doing the actual build. So the objective is the most important part. That's the bit where you just gotta make  sure you're asking the right question. Um, it might be for your own work,  it might be for a client's work. It's just going back to them and saying, um, is this,  and, you know, does this align with your business goals?

I've done lots of things in the past  where I've done a project, got to the end of it  and realized, although it was lovely and it looks good  and it works, it hasn't got me any  closer to where I wanted to be. Okay? So making sure at this, um, at this time, whether it's  with your client or with yourself, is just asking yourself,  does this get me closer, um, to where I want to be? Does this align with my business goals? So once you've got the kind of question clear,  then it's setting your hypothesis  and make sure you set a hypothesis  and use the right kinda language for  that rather than setting things like goals or, uh, targets. Um, because setting a hypothesis  and say a hypothesis would be, uh, will existing clients pay  for photography courses from me?

Okay? That would be one of my hypothesis for,  um, creating a photography course. Now, instead of just saying, I want  to create a photography course, the problem with that is,  um, I wanna sell photography courses. There is a yes or no, like there's a fail or, um, or a,  or a success there, okay? And you can get really dejected when, um,  I've launched things and you're like,  great, it's definitely gonna work. And it doesn't.

And the people that worked on the project  and myself all get a bit disheartened by the whole thing. Whereas if you change the language too, I will, you know,  I will test hypothesis that existing clients, you know, the,  the goal of it is to test, um, will,  will the clients actually pay for this? Then you can't lose, okay? Whether it's yes or no, it doesn't matter. Your job is to figure out whether that's, you know,  whether that'll happen or not. And so, you know, it's a win-win,  and it's a, it's a better language to have.

So make sure when you are dealing with kind  of setting goals, they aren't, um, you know,  uh, all or nothing. Okay? So once you've got a hypothesis,  then you're gonna move into the research phase. Now, um, only do they the kind  of like really impactful research. The, some people can get a little caught up in the research  phase and spend ages making  documents about what you should do. Um, do the stuff that's easy and relates to you.

If you've got, like, say my projects  that are launching new courses, I have a lot  of data already on existing clients. I have a lot of web traffic that I can kind  of get some research done quite easily to test some things. But say you've got something brand new, okay? It's a new feature for an app,  or it's a new app itself, okay? There's not gonna be a whole lot of research you can do. So do it.

Um, but then move on to the mockup stage  and the testing stage is more important. Now, for the mockup, it's all about what's called the MVP. So the minimum viable product,  what can you get going quickly and get tested? Okay? So you wanna move to  that test phase as quickly as you can. So your mockup might be just wire frames,  it might just be Photoshop Flats.

It could be Photoshop Flats with a bit  of Envision interaction. It might be Muse, it might be a, um, a reasonably, um,  interactive app. Okay? You might need that for an actual, get a, you know,  to get a good mockup through to get tested. So it's up to you in the project,  but make sure it's just enough. Doesn't have to be the best  and prettiest with all the features,  just the basics in that mockup.

Then once you move from the mockup,  then it's the testing testing's. Definitely the phase where as a UX designer, that's,  that's kind of like what, um, uh, you know, your employer  or your client, this is the most value  they get out of it, okay? Is actually seeing the testing  and actually see people using this thing, okay? And want the testing done. Then you kinda loop back to mockup  and iterate on that to mockup. Okay?

So you do some testing, there was, you know,  there's gonna be problems, there's gonna be issues,  there's gonna be things you didn't think about. And then kind of looping back into that mockup phase again,  once you've gone through and got something kind  of working okay and tested as much as you can with a mockup,  then it's kind of working into the building  process, actually making the thing. Now, um, don't feel like that's the end of your role  as a UX designer. There's lots you can do once a feature's being launched  or an app's being launched  or a new product's being, um, you know, uh, delivered. There's lots of that kind of continued testing  and iteration that can go with live data. Again, there's lots of things you can use to check and,  and, and work on that.

All right, so that's the five phases of being a UX designer,  objective research, mockup test, and then the build.