Design Process

I view design as an evolving process in which the client and the designer collaborate to find the best solution for the problem at hand. Just as nature has gone through evolution over billions of years, design should follow the rules set forth by this process.

A principle that I always work with in mind:

Good design = evolving design

With that being said, let’s jump into a high level view of my design process.

1. Gather Data

The first step is to get all the data “on the table,” same as you would with any engineering, business, or other type of problem before trying to create a solution. This is done through asking the client questions, getting to know their customers, gathering market data, researching competitors, or whatever the problem calls for.

These are a few questions I might ask you or your customers:

• What problem are you trying to solve?
• What are your goals when solving this problem?
• Are there any similar solutions that you’ve tried or like?
• Who are your customers?
• etc.

2. Compile & Sort Data

After gathering all of the data, we can sort through it and run through the following items:

• Prioritize items and objectives
• Map out a timeline for the project
• Start mapping out potential solutions

3. Align Brand & Prep Data

Your brand is the foundation of all content for your business. Now that we have all of the data sorted, we can start to align your brand and prep for the “Build” stage of the process.

This is typically where:

• Design files are set up
• A design system is established (I utilize an Atomic Design system. You can learn about what that is here.)
• All necessary brand assets and styles are added to design files
• Collaborate with the Client to make sure everything is in place

4. Build

Now that we have everything in place, we can start designing the solution.

Just as I mentioned before, good design = evolving design. This means that there will be a few iterations in order to get to build a solution for the problem.

That process might look a little like this:

1. Build Version 1
2. Feedback
3. Build Version 2
4. Feedback
5. etc.

5. Publish

Once we’ve developed a fitting solution to the problem, its time to publish and share all assets that were created during the design process.

Based on the type of project (web, UX/UI, pitch decks, etc), I’ll share files in one or more of the following ways:

• Sketch Cloud: This is typically for UX/UI or any graphic design work. It allows you to download all of the final versions of the files in multiple formats as well as any “smaller” assets that were used to build those files.
• Webflow: I exclusively use Webflow to build websites as I’ve found its the fastest way to build the best looking sites on the web. Webflow has an “Editor” that easily allows clients to edit basic parts of their website such as adding blog posts, changing text on the site, and changing images on the site.
• Google Drive: Any other exported files from Sketch, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator etc. will be stored in a Google Drive folder for easy access in the future.

If you are looking for a designer, I’d love to hear about what work you are looking to have done. Feel free to reach out: hello(at)danstrangfeld.com

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