Important Steps In A User Centered Product Design Process

We see many applications or websites focused only on integrating fancy features more than the end-user itself. What they don’t understand is that user-centered product design is the single most important approach in the entire design process.

It shouldn’t be just about working on or delivering an exciting new application, rather it’s about standing where your users stand and thinking from their perspective. Because user-centered design begins with the step: understand. Understand your end-users, needs, wants and pain points including what makes them tick and what does not, and then build your solutions - only then they would never go obsolete because the user can very much figure out the next step without any complication.

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What Is Product Design?

Product design is a process for developing and creating solutions such as in the form of mobile applications and websites for end-users to address their problems and target market needs. Its requirements vary from market to market.

Moreover, product design is not just about aesthetics - although they are crucial, but how the product functions are even more so. User-centered product design is significant for delivering positive and valuable customer experiences.

Now you must be wondering who is responsible for the product design process. A product designer! He evaluates the market for customer needs, identifies their needs, and designs valuable solutions.

Why Is User-Centered Design Important?

• A user-centered product design process can boost your sales.
• As a business, you will have a better understanding of your potential customers' requirements and expectations. 
• You will likely deliver a high-performing product in the market because it will resonate with your desired target market.
• The products may have lesser chances of errors.
• Your design team will learn about empathy while designing a product and its significance.
• User-centered design is highly accessible and convenient and it caters to all different kinds of users.
• Helps your brand gain a competitive edge in this highly competitive market.
• Attract more prospective customers to your product because it meets their needs.
• Builds positive customer experiences. 
• Last but not least, you will have a better insight into your potential customers at the beginning which would save you time and money, moving forward. 

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User-Centered Product Design Process

A product design goes through 5 different stages: research, brainstorming, design, user testing, and delivery.

Comprehensive research to understand your customers

Market research for product discovery is the most important step toward designing user-centric designs. The main idea behind the research is to check the market demands and the problems customers are seen to be facing.

Even though product discovery is the most important part of the entire process, do not forget that it is also a continuous process and can happen at every stage whether it’s design or user testing. But throughout market research, in the beginning, can help save money and time in the long run.

During this stage, product designers identify the problem through field studies, competitor analysis, and user interviews that need immediate solutions. Based on this a rather detailed report is designed which mentions all the findings of the research. Research not only helps to discover varying customer perspectives but also helps in delivering a winning and valuable product.

Brainstorming to narrow down ideas

Now that you have your research based on which you have narrowed down the problems that need to be solved. The next step for you would be to sleep on those ideas, and brainstorm on the features and functionalities you should start with.

After mapping out the user journeys and flows, you need to build the blueprint of your design known as wireframes. You roughly sketch a meaningful and easily navigable system that is meaningful for prospective customers.

In the end, you design a mood board and make sure that the layout and functions offer the optimal user experience through visuals, content, and other design elements.

Translating ideas into prototypes

Now it's time for you to design the interface of your product. Come up with a design guide including the color schemes you will be using, fonts, button styles, icons, images -- so on and so forth. This is where you visualize the branding of your product to ensure consistency and coherence throughout.

Now you apply your design guidelines to rough wireframes and give them a shape. Once the layout has been set, a functional Prototype is developed to see how the navigation would look like. Plus, feedback gathering from all the major stakeholders during this stage can also help with improving the product before putting it out there.

User testing for identifying loopholes

User testing refines and evaluates your initial ideas and design concepts. Additionally, it enables you to provide the best-suited solutions. Therefore in this stage, you float your functional prototype for your end-users to test and in return provide their valuable feedback based on their interaction and experience with the product.

Keeping the user feedback in view, you then make a few tweaks here and there to make sure that your goals, objectives, and customer expectations are met.

Implementation of fully functional designs

The last step is to develop and implement the final technical design. It defines the architecture, and structure of the project - needed to successfully build the product along with the expected time and costs.

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About InvoZone

InvoZone has over 8+ years of experience in providing ui ux design services and has built more than 100 cutting-edge software solutions to help businesses grow and thrive in today’s highly competitive world. So if you too are looking for creative web designs, ping us today!