Concept Design
Is the process when our design ideation starts to take shape and becomes design, and our primary focus will be to prototype and test our new ideas.
Before we rush into high fidelity design or start to build any solutions, we need to make our ideas tangible by prototyping concepts and test any assumptions that might arise along the way.
Prototyping
To ensure an idea is tangible and can solve what we set out to do, there are a set of various different methods and fidelity of design that we can use. A simple paper sketch is the quickest and fastest way to get an idea validated by question hypotheses and assumptions.
Once we have a more clear idea and a viable solution that we think is worth making into design and also try, we start visualizing our sketches into a prototype with low-fidelity wireframes.
This ensures that we quickly can iterate new ideas from what we will learn and refine findings into something better.
Prototyping is the quickest way to better understand the needs of users before investing in production.
User testing
All stages in a concept design process are good for testing and a simple internal guerilla test with someone who hasn't seen the solution or problem in question can give valuable insight around simple usability.
Once the initial ideas are in place and any usability problems are corrected, then it is time for the real testing. A clickable design prototype that represents a proposed solution is the best way to gather feedback and quickly refine into something better.
By focusing on a user-centric approach and getting real users to test iterative prototypes, we can better understand the needs of users and we can uncover flaws and shortcomings in the early versions of our proposed solution.
Real human observations will help us uncover valuable insights that we will have easier to drive towards a solution.
Mid-fidelity wireframes are a visual blueprint of contextual behaviors and how a product is supposed to be built.
Wireframes
Based on the design fidelity level of our prototypes, we will now refine insights and outcome from our user testing into mid-fidelity wireframes and something that more clearly reflects the functionality necessary for a final product.
It will now become important to understand data that will be collected, how that affects human interaction and what text or wordings to use to better help users to complete the task that is put in front of them.
We will map out design into wireflows that will help us evaluate interaction behaviors and which can be approved by a back-end team to ensure design is feasible before visual design is applied.
Mid-fidelity wireframes give a clear idea of how a product is supposed to work and are also a quick way to create a visual blueprint of what to later design and build.
