UCD (User Centered Design) is key to any Design Flow.

Using as an example one of my Projects – I will describe my UX Design Process from the very beginning (Idea) to the final stage (Release).

Product: Responsive Web App – online booking system for Beauty Studio
Team: 1 UX/UI Developer, 1 Full Stack Developer, 1 QA Engineer
Technologies: – React.js, Firebase

Team worked in Agile process.

The idea of the app is to allow all Lviv women to get information about beauty studio services and make instant bookings through the system.

First requirement was to create a native mobile app which allows users book services and save information about previous bookings. After research, we found out that most of the users are likely “happier” to have their appointments booked through web services. Without downloading the app.

Responsive progressive web application was the best option to choose. It saves development time, covers larger market share and satisfies all users needs. “Mobile First Approach” was primary design model.

On the technologies side we choose React.js to be able to convert it into native mobile app with the help of React Native, if needed.

UX process steps:
* Analyze User Data
* Create Personas
* Define Pain Points – Users Goals
* Implementation Plan
* Paper Prototyping
* Low Fidelity Prototype
* Testing UI – Defining KPIs
* Summary

Analyze User Data
The first thing we did was defining our target group and went out to survey them. We interviewed 278 women in Lviv about beauty studios preferences, problems and wishes. We found a few interesting insights that encouraged us to start developing the app:

* Over 80% shared common pains.
* Over 90% shared at least one.
* Over 70% said they would go more often if they could book the appointment “on the go”.

Most of the clients  had the following problems:
* The process of making a booking
* Not being able to find instant availability
* Find a certain service

By now we knew our audience – WHO ARE WE DESIGNING FOR? their pains – WHAT ARE THEIR PROBLEMS? and what would ease that pain – HOW TO MAKE THEM USE OUR SOFTWARE EASILY?

Create Personas
Using User Research and Web Analytics we created 2 Personas – Anna (Personal Trainer with a lot of drive and active lifestyle) and Sophie (High School Teacher with pragmatist personality), who have different Motivations and Frustrations with Beauty Services. Creating these two Personas helped us to define common Users Needs and convert them into real tasks.

Define Pain Points – Users Goals
Personas gave us an idea of what are users looking for, so we just turned those needs into Goals.
For example: we know that users are frustrated with doing email verification neither creating an account for booking. So one of the Goals was to book service instantly. At the same time having phone verification to make sure you can reach the customer.

Implementation Plan
Implementation planning happens at the end of the initial UCD cycle. After analyzing user data and creating Personas we were ready to build Implementation Plan. In our case app was divided into two main functional “parts” – General and Booking Process.
We defined three categories to each of them: Minimum Requirements, Major Requirements, Nice To Have. And placed requirements according to category.

Paper Prototyping
If you show users a pixel-perfect mockup, they may not give you as much feedback, because they are concentrated on picture more than on interaction. Thats why in the beginning better to show essential functionality.

Testing UI – Defining KPIs
UX KPIs provide great insight into the size and magnitude of usability issues and help easily track their changes through time. In this project we decided to use two types of UX KPIs: quantitative and qualitative.
We took what we learned from testing and used it to improve the design and raise it’s fidelity.

Summary
User experience design process is an iterative method that helps you continuously improve and polish your designs.
We went thoroughly through each step of my UX Process and I hope you enjoyed this journey.