Whether you’re a developer trying to learn more about design, or you’re an aspiring UX Designer, I wanted to share with you my process for creating user-centered designs, and my UX Design process.

Know who you’re building for

When creating a product, I like to ask questions such as:

• Who is going to use this app? What is the demographic?
• Is this app going to be used on mobile or a computer more often?
• Which will be used more – a mouse or finger?
• Can this website be used with just one hand if it’s on a phone?
• How big does the text need to be? (Older people may not be able to see smaller characters)
• Why are people coming to this website?
• What is their goal for coming?
• How long will they be using it for? (Is the app for quick actions or long actions?)

Create sketches on paper

I’ve found that an important part of the UX Design process is having an idea of how a user will go through a product. Instead of now opening up Figma, waiting for the browser to load, and trying to get ideas out, the easiest thing I’ve found is to just use a pen and paper. This helps you to draw out how a user will go from one screen to another, and you can’t really mess up, since you’re just scribbling on paper.

One thing to keep in mind: Make the website easy to use. You can do this by making sure that each transition from page to page, section to section, makes sense and is smooth. For instance, you wouldn’t have the checkout page of an online store right on the homepage, right? A good user experience and good design is extremely important in the UX Design process. People may not stay to use a product if it’s hard to use.

Create a wireframe flow

After you have some sketches of how the user will go through your product, the next step in creating user-centered designs in the UX Design Process is to go on Figma, XD, or your favorite design tool. How do you actually create the designs though? What if you can’t think of anything?

Something that has helped me in my UX Design process is to look for other sources of inspiration. For instance, if you’re building a real-estate website, look at other real-estate websites out there that you like, and try to figure out just what about them that makes you like them so much. For instance, you might like the font they chose. Then, write those things down.

But once again, when creating your designs, choosing colors, etc., make sure that the design is user friendly and centered on the user.

Side note – what does that mean; “creating user-centered designs“?

In the UX Design process, a design that is user-centered is one that makes sure the user can solve their goal. So, going back to the real-estate website, people generally go to websites like these to buy a home? So, make it as easy as possible for them to buy a home by creating a design that leads them clearly to that goal.

Is the UX Design process really that important?

As developers, we get very caught up in the newest technologies. But something to keep in mind is that if our products are hard to use, and people stop using it, a for-loop is not going to help us at this time.

But what I’ve noticed is that by going through this UX Design process before coding:

• Knowing and brainstorming who I’m building for
• Putting some rough ideas on paper
• Creating designs on Figma instead of from my head

I end up with websites and apps that look good and are easier to use. So whether you’re an independent developer, or you work at a company, this is the UX Design process that I’ve been using to create my products, and I hope that I was able to help.