01

Empathize

Addressing a problem using design must start with empathizing with the users and audience. Money spent on a project for the sake of stroking your own ego is definitely money wasted. It's better to get to the root of the problem first, before creating something that you just really like. Taking the insights you learned via your initial research, and dangling it in front of you like a carrot on a stick, will always lead you in the right direction.

02

Identify

Identifying the problem isn't always easy. Sometimes it's covered up by surface-level frustrations, bugs, emotions. People don't always know what's wrong, they just know they have a problem. After collecting insights comes the really big-brain stuff; piecing everything together and uncovering the optimal solution that nobody knew was possible.

03

Ideate

This is where the creative sparks start to fly. You have a problem, now what? How to solve it is the designers job. Design expertise dictates the road the project goes down. Big responsibility. I walk down this road with confidence knowing that we've chosen the right one. Ultimately, this is when we really start cooking with gas.

04

Prototype

Taking these wonderful ideas and seeing how they'll actually look is where I and other creative types could spend way too much time. But I don't! Because I'm efficient and I respect peoples time. I like playing with a couple solutions, and sometimes even starting from scratch and creating one more. Getting the design in front of some eyeballs, that's where we go from here.

05

Validate

We've made this thing/all this stuff, but did it work? Sweet victory 🤏 Put that one in the books. Did it kind of not work? It happens, back to step 3. Getting it right is always the goal, and getting it right according to the users and audience is how that happens. Once we get there, W's all around.