Establishing the role of the design within a project.
*Designer or Design Team
The decorator is given little room to change the existing design beyond the 'painting' (the interface) and moving some of the 'furniture' (UI components) around. No structural changes (markup) are made and the flow can only be optimized to a local maxima and not significantly changed.
The renovator is brought in to do significant changes to the current site or application. The renovation is a realignment between the current functionality and user experience, and the desired future state aligned with the business goals.
The renovation may involve significant architectural changes but will be constrain by the scope of the changes, the existing structure, and the timeframe.
The renovation design phase involves prototyping and a series of mockups. Design deliverables will vary greatly and be constrained but the capabilities and expectations of the implementation team. For example, if the product is a proprietary product, custom changes may not be aligned with the vendors's business goals and their timeframe may be too long.
The architect is involved in the project from the very beginning. The architect is responsible for the design of the project from end to end. Gathering requirements: conducting user research; creating design deliverables; and finally making sure that both design and business goals have been met.
The design phase should involve a series of prototypes working from low fidelity to high(er) fidelity mockups. These prototypes allow for multiple check-ins with stakeholders. These prototypes should also be user tested. The prototypes are a vital communication tool. Between the team and the stakeholders, and the team and the end users. Design deliverables will be the blueprint for how the users will interact with the product and not a functional spec.
This approach can be best described as a blank page. It may be used for a new site or application or when an existing site or application's data will be migrate to a new site or application.
Why is it so important to consider design from the beginning of a project?
The rule of thumb in many usability-aware organizations is that the cost-benefit ratio for usability is $1:$10-$100. Once a system is in development, correcting a problem costs 10 times as much as fixing the same problem in design. If the system has been released, it costs 100 times as much relative to fixing in design.
Gilb, Tom. (1988) Principles of Software Engineering Management
Design deliverables will vary depending on the role of the designer and the project specifics. Here are some example deliverables:
- User Research
- Personas
- Usability Testing
- Sketches
- Prototypes
- Wireframes
- User Workflows
- Style Guide
- UI Patterns Library