(under ideal conditions...which is rare.)
Explore & Discover
Who are my users, and what problem are they trying to solve? What data can I get my hands on? Are there experts I can speak to? Who or what is my competition and what can I learn from them (good & bad)?
Find Opportunities
What are the pain points I’ve discovered? Am I iterating off of an existing product or starting from scratch? How can I make my user's life easier? What can I do to delight unexpectedly? How do I measure success?
Sketch, mockup, and share
Time to sketch or wireframe and share with stakeholders and other designers. This stage may include paper & pencil, whiteboarding, detailed wireframes, or high-fidelity mock-ups.
Prototype & Test
Depending on the project, I may create functional HTML files or clickable prototypes in Figma. These aren’t pixel-perfect and ready for dev, but they’re great for demonstration and user testing.
Iterate, iterate, iterate
Once testing has concluded, I finalize designs and prepare for dev handoff, then work with the engineers to get the project live. After launch, I’ll iterate based on analytics and additional user testing and feedback.