Flexible, User-Centered
When first meeting with a new client or design team, I’m often asked about my UX process. “Are you Agile?” “Do you follow Double Diamond?” “Have you tried OOUX?” All of these methodologies are great for streamlining work and helping us as designers find better solutions…except when they’re not.
Agile works well for well-defined stories — less so for squeezing UX activities into arbitrary timelines. Object-Oriented UX (OOUX) is fantastic for abstracting an experience into familiar and reusable elements — but sometimes jumping into the solution too early makes us lose sight of which problems we’re trying to solve in the first place. And the Double Diamond is a simple, elegant structure for organizing problem-solving into diverging and converging workflows — but clients often have neither the budget nor the patience for a lengthy discovery phase before seeing anything tangible (or at least, what they consider tangible artifacts).
A good UX process is adaptable, not rigid, because every project is unique. Updating and iterating on an existing app requires a different approach than designing something from scratch. Some projects have clear goals from the start, while others require deep discovery and problem-framing before moving forward. I’ve found the best approach to process is to remain flexible and use the parts from all these methodologies that make sense in any given project: Double Diamond provides a framework for design work and helps ensure we explore and define problems before jumping to solutions, Design Thinking keeps the process human-centered and iterative, OOUX anchors experiences in familiar concepts that align with users’ mental models to create intuitive solutions, and Agile frameworks help developers quickly build and iterate one piece at a time.
Understanding the Problem
The first phase of any UX project should focus on understanding the problem space and ensuring that we’re solving the right problem in the first place. For smaller projects or existing products, stakeholders may already have a strong grasp of user needs, making a lengthy discovery phase unnecessary. It’s important to explain the benefits of discovery activities, but also remain adaptable when timelines or resources require a less formal approach.
Whether provided by stakeholders or as a result of discovery activities, the goal of this phase is to establish a well-defined problem statement, which helps to align teams and prevent wasted effort on misaligned solutions.
Framing the Problem & Structuring the Experience
After gathering insights in the discovery phase, the next step is to synthesize findings into a clear problem definition. This phase ensures that teams align on what needs to be solved before jumping into solutions, reducing wasted effort and keeping design efforts focused.
This is where Design Thinking principles guide the process — ensuring that we define the right problem before solving it. Instead of rushing into UI design, this step focuses on structuring information and interactions around user needs and mental models.
Object-Oriented UX (OOUX) plays a major role in defining system structure before designing screens. Rather than focusing only on flows and wireframes, OOUX helps establish core objects, relationships, and calls to action, creating a foundation for an intuitive and flexible experience.
By the end of this phase, the team should have a well-defined problem statement, clear user needs, and a structured approach to designing solutions. Whether this process is brief or extensive depends on the project — smaller iterations may only require quick discussions, while larger initiatives benefit from deeper mapping exercises. Some teams move quickly into sketching and prototyping before this phase is complete, which is useful to help stakeholders align on the findings, as long as it’s clear these will most likely evolve and change throughout the design phase.
Exploring Potential Solutions
With a well-defined problem and structured framework in place, the next step is to explore solutions and bring ideas to life through design. This phase balances creativity with validation, ensuring that designs are both innovative and practical before moving into development.
Exploring Solutions Through Iteration
This phase begins with rapid ideation — brainstorming multiple solutions to see what works best. Instead of jumping straight to high-fidelity UI design, I start with low-fidelity sketches or wireframes to test ideas quickly and fail fast, learn fast.
Applying Object-Oriented UX & Design Thinking
At this stage, OOUX principles help structure designs around real-world concepts and user mental models, ensuring that experiences are predictable, scalable, and intuitive.
Testing & Refinement Before Development
Before finalizing designs, I incorporate early validation to identify potential usability issues and reduce risk before coding begins. Testing insights feed directly into backlog prioritization, ensuring iterative improvements align with user needs and business goals.
By the end of this phase, the design should be ready for a smooth handoff to developers, complete with interaction details, specifications, and documentation. Development may have already begun, since development and engineering partners have been included in the design process so far and already have an understanding of the requirements and designs.
Turning Ideas into Working Products
Once designs are validated, the focus shifts to handoff and implementation. Clear communication with development teams is key to ensuring that the designs are accurately translated into the final product. I provide detailed specs, interactive prototypes, and design documentation.
With Agile development teams, UX works best when treated as part of story refinement. Rather than working “a few sprints ahead” — which often leads to bottlenecks and a blockers — UX activities should be completed before stories are considered ready, allowing time for research, iteration, and validation before development begins. I continue to collaborate with the development team during their sprints, answering questions and participating in sprint reviews to provide design QA.
Testing and iteration don’t stop after launch. Small refinements can often be pulled into active sprints, while larger updates — especially when additional research or redesign is required — are added to the product backlog and prioritized accordingly. This way, user feedback directly informs product improvements without disrupting active development.
Focus on Results, Not Activities
There is no one-size-fits-all UX process, and It’s important to remember these methodologies are meant to guide the problem-solving process, not to deliver UX artifacts for their own sake. Every project is different, and a flexible approach leads to better end results. I continually work with stakeholders, product owners, and developers to evaluate which parts are necessary for the project at hand so that we all remain focused on delivering the best possible user experience.