How to complete a design project using AGILE DESIGN PROCESS

This guided article describes how to structure a design process either for yourself or if working with clients.

Design is a very subjective thing. What you like may not be what others like and vice versa. Therefore, to avoid loss of countless hours and dozens of repeated work one of the best methods is an industry standard of Agile Process. A process I use in many aspects of running anything that requires design and feedback.

Time is money. So save yourself the headache and get organised and “Agile”

BRIEF

Understand the requirements of the clients and the project (product, target, concepts)
Select Keywords from the brief, they will help you to link ideas
Note down key images or inspirations you currently have or are given.

RESEARCH

Find what’s being used, trending designs such as colours and font type.
Collect examples of all kind. Any idea could be relevant now or in the future
Look for the good examples but also for the bad ones. Not only is important to know the common mistakes, but also they give you strong reasons for supporting your main concepts and ideas.
Research about competitors: what they have in common and what makes them different from each other

BRAINSTORMING

Start thinking about the information given.
Get the relationship between the aesthetic and the product.
Any idea is a possibility. Try to relate thoughts and concepts and explore them, getting some images and references.
During the brainstorming step, any random idea can be a strong possibility. Do not discard any of them.
Get as many information as you can.

Track your ideas using modern-day apps like Asana, Trello, Pinterest, Microsoft Onenote, Evernote etc. Whichever your most comfortable with. Ideally, it should have a share function so you can share your ideas

IDEA BOARD

Compile all the interesting ideas.
Keep the ones that support the main concepts you want to work with
The Idea Board is a sample of the main colours and layouts used by the competitors and other designers, but also a reference for many other possibilities and alternatives

SHARING STAGE 1:

At this stage, it is a good idea to share your Ideas with anyone you are working with or working for. To ensure you are on the correct track

Get their feedback quickly and place those ideas into your idea board.

DRAFT

No you have got some clarity, have all your ideas organised and recieved feedback. Begin drafting the design.

Create a variety of sketches that summarize all the main concepts and idea picked during the previous stages
Try to reflect different concepts: Try different Layouts, different colour combinations, different fonts…
Customers need to see something finished so even though this is a draft stage, look for polish samples (otherwise clients will go for format mistakes and not for the main information you are expecting to get)
Once you have many different options, show them to the customers and wait for a feedback.
Write what they like and they don’t.
Clients won’t probably make a decision during the first times so you might have to repeat this process until they give you enough information about which result is the best to start working on.
Leaflet: In the first Sprint you may want to look for a Layout and a Colour Palette.

MOCKUP

Best way to present the work or to see how it looks yourself is to create a mockup, espcially if it is for a physical products or Print Media. Obviously if the design is for a website graphic or social media a mockup is not needed as the design work itself is the final product.

However a lower resolution, and less detail can be used if the design is digital, saving you time in rendering and resources. Also it will be easier to share.

Once is decided which is the direction to keep on, work on the Mock-up and make different variations
This is a step to work on details so focus on the font type/colour, background and pattern variations, image and colour correction, etc.
Again make some different versions and show them to the customer. Wait for feedback and keep on optimizing your design.
Leaflet: By the end of this second Sprint, the main Template should be already defined.

SHARING STAGE 2:

This is your last stage, to get feedback and share your design progress so far. At this point, you must confirm the design and ask the client to sign-off. As after this stage you will be completing the work.

Get their feedback, which at this stage should be either no feedback if your are really good at listening to them in the early stages, or very few slight changes maybe requested.