Every Design Activity You Need
to Know
Every Design Activity You Need to Know
Article written by Kate Valind
3 min read
Below is a list of the most common activities I do during a Design project. I grouped each activity by phase (Investigating, Reflecting, Creating) and put them in a rough order starting with the activities I do at the very beginning of a project when there are the most unknowns and “ending” with the activities I do when there are the least unknowns. I put “ending” in quotations because depending upon the project there may not be an end. You may work on the same project for years and cycle through the Design Process and a unique cocktail of the activities listed innumerable times.
I’ll also note that I don’t do every activity for every project. The activities I use for a branding project are different from those I use for a website redesign project. I will also use different activities depending on the greater context: Have my team and I worked on this project for years, or is this our first day? Are the stakeholders aligned and have a clear problem they’re trying to solve or do we need to create that alignment? Is there a lot of existing research on the topic or do we need to conduct our own? And so on and so forth…
If during any phase you feel like you’re missing important information, something’s not quite right about the idea you chose to pursue, …whatever! You can always revisit the other steps. As stated in the previous article, “The design process is a continuous cycle. None of the steps are linear. The steps can be applied as needed.” So relax, have fun, and trust the data, your experience, as well as your intuition about what it is you need to do next to move closer towards your goal.
Below is a list of the most common activities I do during a Design project. I grouped each activity by phase (Investigating, Reflecting, Creating) and put them in a rough order starting with the activities I do at the very beginning of a project when there are the most unknowns and “ending” with the activities I do when there are the least unknowns. I put “ending” in quotations because depending upon the project there may not be an end. You may work on the same project for years and cycle through the Design Process and a unique cocktail of the activities listed innumerable times.
I’ll also note that I don’t do every activity for every project. The activities I use for a branding project are different from those I use for a website redesign project. I will also use different activities depending on the greater context: Have my team and I worked on this project for years, or is this our first day? Are the stakeholders aligned and have a clear problem they’re trying to solve or do we need to create that alignment? Is there a lot of existing research on the topic or do we need to conduct our own? And so on and so forth…
If during any phase you feel like you’re missing important information, something’s not quite right about the idea you chose to pursue, …whatever! You can always revisit the other steps. As stated in the previous article, “The design process is a continuous cycle. None of the steps are linear. The steps can be applied as needed.” So relax, have fun, and trust the data, your experience, as well as your intuition about what it is you need to do next to move closer towards your goal.
Depending on the team, different people may be responsible for different activities within the Design Process. Sometimes teams are composed of highly specialized individuals and may have a Design Researcher who does all the research activities and a Visual Designer who does all the branding and UI design activities. Other times teams are leaner and need one person to wear many hats meaning a single individual may be responsible for most or all of the Design-related activities.
If you’ve never heard of some of the activities on the list, that’s OK! You might know of some that I haven’t listed and that’s OK too. These are just ones that I have found to be the most effective for the type of work I do. Descriptions and examples of most of these activities can be found within the following resources (which I refer back to time and time again):
Note – The activities are tools you can use and edit as needed. Think critically at the start of the project and ask yourself:
Is this activity needed?
Is it needed but with edits?
Is it needed at the "usual" moment in the process or is it needed earlier, later, or both?
Depending on the team, different people may be responsible for different activities within the Design Process. Sometimes teams are composed of highly specialized individuals and may have a Design Researcher who does all the research activities and a Visual Designer who does all the branding and UI design activities. Other times teams are leaner and need one person to wear many hats meaning a single individual may be responsible for most or all of the Design-related activities.
If you’ve never heard of some of the activities on the list, that’s OK! You might know of some that I haven’t listed and that’s OK too. These are just ones that I have found to be the most effective for the type of work I do. Descriptions and examples of most of these activities can be found within the following resources (which I refer back to time and time again):
Note – The activities are tools you can use and edit as needed. Think critically at the start of the project and ask yourself:
Is this activity needed?
Is it needed but with edits?
Is it needed at the "usual" moment in the process or is it needed earlier, later, or both?