Great products that truly delight users require solid research and thinking and collaboration to achieve. The Double Diamond Design Process (DD) takes customer insights in very specific ways and leverages them to get the highest value. These insights inform the design of the product feature directly with full validation from our users. Thus guaranteeing that features will meet or exceed expectations.
The intent of wanted to delight customers is to create products that customers can’t live without, that they are excited enough to tell their co-workers and friends. Really to create a viral response to the product that brings sales to us instead of us looking for sales. Truly delightful products sell themselves.
The DD process is broken into four phases. The first two phases form the first diamond, which is about Research. The third and fourth phases form the second diamond, which is about Design. Customers are involved on both ends, we research with them and then we validate our designs with them.
Phase 1: Research
The object of this phase is to gather all the evidence around a feature or product. We research every aspect of what we understand about the requirements. We gather intel from all possible locations to feed the next phase. We focus heavily on users (or potential users), with the intent of uncovering unknown issues and confirming assumptions.
This may include:
- Market research reports
- Competitor evaluations
- Customer Interviews
- Contextual Inquiries
- Site visits
- Group Interviews
Phase 2: Analyze
Analyzing is simply about reflecting on the findings from the research and coming to a consensus as a the team on what it means and what to do about it. It’s a point to think about the original requirements and make adjustments accordingly.
Techniques we may use:
- Affinity Mapping
- Customer Journey Mapping
- Mental Models
- Personas – Empathy Maps
- Problem Statements
- Design Principles
Phase 3: Design
This is where we get into solving the problems that we identified in the first diamond. What we mean by ‘design’ isn’t just the ‘designer’ sitting at their desk and spending an hour drawing up a pretty picture. We mean the team working collaboratively to conceive of the best possible strategy, user flows, approach, interaction design patterns and visual design. This is highly collaborative and involves everyone in the process.
This may involve:
- Wireframes
- Storyboarding
- Design Mockups
- Design Studio Sessions
- Prototyping
Phase 4: Validate
We walk into this phase with some set of mockups, prototypes or wireframes, we call this a ‘strawman’. We take this strawman concept back to users to isolate what works and what doesn’t. We then iterate, and if time allows, go back to another set of users for more validation.
Types of research we might able:
- Usability Testing – User follows a series of tasks through a prototype
- Concept Testing – User guides us through a UI
- Participatory Design – User is given a blank slate to draw and ideal solution
Resources:
https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/double-diamond
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond