What is a Design Process? How can you use it to explore interdisciplinary design? What makes a design process personal?

In this post we’ll look at the importance of a design process, how you can begin to understand your process, and how having a solid process can let you explore interdisciplinary design.

An Introduction to the Design Process

The Design Process is the workflow used by designers to get from the start to the end of a project. It’s a step-by-step process that you can rely on when things feel overwhelming or when you need to move your project along. You can always trust your process.

The design process is different for everyone, and there are elements to every process that make sense for some projects but not for others. But overall the process is very much the same. It works across Fashion Design, Industrial Design, Graphics and more. 

We’ve only covered the essentials in this post but we’ll explore each stage in more depth in later posts. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

The design process listed below will show you how to start a project with a client and bring it 

To see all the different design fields you can explore with your design process you can check out our 12 Principles of Interdisciplinary Design.

The Adaptability of the Design Process

I became an interdisciplinary designer throughout my career. I started in Graphic Design and ended up working in a maker space with 3D printers and Laser Cutters before moving into Industrial Design. 

When I began retraining in Industrial Design something became very apparent. The processes between Graphic Design and Industrial Design were almost identical. The output was different, but the workflow was very much the same. Why wasn’t anyone sharing this!?

This fact never sat well with me. Imagine how much more creative you could be if you knew you could use the same process across different fields of design. You could begin working on your dream projects, never feel held back, or end up feeling stifled creatively.

That’s why I created Nollie, for those of you like me. The people who want to explore design to its fullest and want to explore how creative they can be. Not only that, but with AI and a changing job market there has never been a better time to build interdisciplinary design skills to be versatile. 

You can find out why we need interdisciplinary skills in our post about the Future of Design in this post.

Plan out Your Design Process

They say “Fail to plan, plan to fail,” and Design is no different. 

It’s important when getting a brief that you understand fully what’s required of you and what is expected in the result. You also need to know when you need to deliver your final output. This is known as a deadline and you must get everything ready beforehand.

We have a Planning Stage Workbook to streamline this stage of the process for you.

A Design Process Journal

One of the best ways to get an insight into your creative process is to use a design journal. A design journal is a great way to keep your thoughts on a project, update progress, and keep organized with to-do lists.

I have kept a design journal and made it a consistent part of my design process for over 12 years! I keep a dedicated journal where I write about my career and any other design-related thoughts, techniques, insights, and advice.

Whenever I start a big project, I buy a small notebook. I keep all of my insights around that one project in that notebook. I can use this to help write a case study of the project once it’s complete.

Check out our post about keeping a design project journal.

When we get to the Research stage of a project, keeping a notebook will allow you to keep track of any advice, techniques, and insight that could impact your design project.

I’ve been keeping a design journal in some form since 2012, and can honestly say it is my favorite tool as a designer that’s often overlooked.

If you’re new to using a design journal start small. Start with an A6 size notebook and get into the habit.

I use a bullet journal notebook, like this one. The dots allow me to draw straight lines which makes it great for drawing diagrams and keeping my writing from going all over the place. But the dots also provide me space to doodle and sketch without having lines get in the way.

Understand the Client

A client once said to me “Design is a bit like dating, I need to know that your design is the one you want to end up with.” That’s incredibly true!

Different clients have different things they find important. As a designer, it’s up to you to deliver a solution that fits that specific client and their stakeholders.  

The best way to do this is with a process called Client Onboarding. Client onboarding is a process that gives you information about the client, their values, and what they’re looking for in a design solution.

You can use a Scope of Work contract to help you ensure that everything is agreed upon at the start of the project. The most important reason to use a Scope of Work contract is to agree upon what needs to be delivered to the client and when.

This ensures that both parties are satisfied with what’s required and can mitigate any risks further down the line. These risks include not getting paid because the client believes you haven’t delivered what was required, or that the budget was different. 

You can use our Scope of Work Contract template to help you! 

Understand the Consumer

You could also ask who is the end user, but the only people who say “user” are designers, tech bros, and drug dealers. So let’s use the term consumer. They will be the person who interacts with your design solution.

What are their expectations? How can you tailor your design to delight them? How will they benefit from your idea?

These are questions you need to ask. The best way to find the answers to these questions is to reach out and meet these people in the Research Stage of the project.

Prepare for the Deadline

The best way to prepare for the deadline is to work backward. If your project is due in 6 weeks, then you know you should have everything ready by then. 

This is why it pays to have a deep understanding of your process, you can set milestones to move onto the next stage depending on the deadline.

You can use several tools to help you plan. You can use your calendar, or use a Gantt chart to map out your process from the start to the end of a project.

Use a Design Specification

A Design Specification is a list of over 30 prompts regarding your design and will help you create a detailed understanding of the requirements needed to fit the brief. 

The prompts cover as many aspects of the Design as possible, such as the requirements of the brief, pricing, customer interaction, aesthetics, environment, and much more. These allow you to see how well your design performs in different contexts.

You can use these as prompts to figure out where you need to do research in the next stage.

Having a strong understanding of how your design will function will pay off massively when it comes time for you to pitch your idea to your client.

Check out my guide on Using a Design Specification or download the Design Specification Template.

Research

Many people often overlook the importance of the research stage, but it can have such a huge impact on your final design idea. It’s these insights that will influence your creative decisions throughout your Design Process.

The amount of research you’ll need to do may depend on different projects, you may even have market research done for you by a client beforehand. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to build some knowledge around the problem you are intending to solve.

There are two types of research, and we’ll explore both:

Primary Research

Primary Research is going out into the world and exploring the topics around your design brief. You go out and meet people, get expert insight, and get real feedback from real people.

You can make this stage VERY fun.

For example, I was working with a bakery to deliver their signage. By going to the bakery, I got to meet their team and build a relationship with them. This helps build my network, but it also means I got to experience their product and get an understanding of their business. I got to taste their cakes and they gave me a bunch to take away.

Primary Research can be done by going to museums, interviewing people, meeting with experts, or having focus groups. You can later rely on these people to give you honest feedback about your idea.

I love this stage, as it allows me to get away from my computer. It gets me out in the world with my trusty backpack, meeting new people that I wouldn’t normally encounter and learning from them. Now they have a face to the name, they can come back to me if they need more design work.

For every project, take some time to immerse yourself in your client’s culture. If your client offers a product or service take the time to understand what it is they’re selling. Get to know their customers, their brand, and the people making the decisions.

Secondary research

Secondary Research collects data and information from secondary sources. This can include online content, books, newspapers, and online videos.

There are many great sources out there to get research. I always try to watch a couple of TED talks in the research stage as it helps frame the idea for a project from a valuable source.

If you’re going to use secondary research, keep track of your sources and keep them together in a summary of your research.

Summarise your Research

If you’re struggling to know where you need to focus your research, you can always use your Design Specification. Update your Design Specification with hard facts that you’ve discovered through your research. Use hard data to answer any topics within the Design Spec.

Moodboards

This is when we start getting creative and moving away from the organization involved in the Design process. 

Using your research create a moodboard of different images that will help inspire you when you begin generating ideas.

This is one stage where I would argue that AI would be a massive help. Finding the right images for your mood boards can take a lot of time, but you can use AI to generate images that closely resemble what the client expects.

Coming Up With Concepts

Now we finally get to the fun bit. It’s time to come up with concepts.

I always recommend putting pen to paper at this stage. It is always beneficial to have some sort of idea before jumping into software. Using A3-sized paper come up with as many ideas and variations as you can. This is called ideation.

A Note on Artificial Intelligence in the Design Process

We’re sadly seeing people think that AI is a valuable tool in the concept phase. While I’m not against using AI in the design process (like with creating mood boards) I would not suggest using it to create concepts. 

The client is paying you for your ideas, not for an assortment of different people’s work bungled into one.

Ideation

Draw as many different ideas as you possibly can. Make each one different. As you begin to fill your page you’ll come up with a range of ideas you can take forward into the next stage. Draw small and fast. Don’t overthink it and you’ll begin generating a bunch of ideas.

Check out these A3 Sketchbooks on Amazon.

For me, I have a wee technique that I use. Purely because I find it amusing. When I first start coming up with concepts I take the piss. Push the idea to its absolute fullest to get the ideas flowing.

For example, one time, I had to come up with a USB stick design that had to be unique and engaging. I thought it would be funny to draw a USB stick that was 10 meters long. I know this is impractical and would never have made it to the final design but it helped loosen the cobwebs and get my head into coming up with ideas.

I like to aim for around 30-40 different thumbnail-sized sketches across 2-3 A3 pages. These sketches don’t have to be fully polished. They can take only a few seconds to produce an idea. They just need to allow me to quickly get the idea out of my head before moving on to the next idea.

Selecting Your Best Ideas 

In my process, I like to aim for around 30-40 different concepts. That’s a lot to take forward for the Development Stage. So it’s important to separate the best ideas from the worst.

Take your best ideas and flesh them out a bit. Maybe create a page for each. 

Once you have a collection of your best concepts you can use a Concept Matrix to help you understand which idea would be the best to bring forward to development. 

You can use a simple Excel sheet and weigh the elements that are important in the final solution, or you can use other techniques like the Japanese House of Quality, or QFD (Quality Function Deployment) matrix.

Pair this with your Design Specification. Which concept best fits the brief and the criteria you’ve set in your Design Specification?

Development

Development is the stage in the process where we take your idea and begin bringing it towards its final solution that you’ll present to your client. It’s time for prototyping!

Now you’ve managed to take your best ideas from the Concept Stage, pick a handful that fit the brief and begin bringing them towards their final version.

Much like you should be creating sketches quickly, you should be doing the same with prototypes. Use paper and cards to come up with prototypes before moving on to different prototypes.

The type of prototypes you’ll make will depend on your project but try to test your ideas in the cheapest way possible before using more expensive materials. By the end of development, your prototype should demonstrate your final idea.

Development is also when you should approach manufacturing. Whether you’re going to a printer or a large-scale manufacturer, you need to know what requirements they have before your design can be made. Elements like sizes, file formatting, finishes, and assembly all need to be thought about in this stage.

Detail

Now that we have a final solution it’s important to get everything tidied up before showing it to the client. 

Use high-quality images, or rendering software to demonstrate your idea. I recommend using Photoshop to correct any issues with images.

You should get images of your design doing what it’s intended to do. If you’re working on a UI project, you want to be able to give a working prototype to the client. If you’re a fashion designer you want to show your clothing designs on a model. If you’re designing a poster, you should show it in its intended environment. You get the idea.

Taking the time to demonstrate how the design will be used will provide context to the client and show that you have thought carefully about the design.

At this stage in the project, you should complete your Design Specification, this will be super important when we get to the next stage.

Pitch

Your pitch should give an overview of your design work and how you’ve met the client’s expectations. Depending on the style of pitch, you should have a presentation ready or a working prototype to demonstrate.

It’s important here that you can answer any questions that the client may have. You may need to explain some of your design choices. That’s why it helps to keep a Design Specification.

You want to have an answer for everything. A Design Specification is a great way to build an understanding of your design.

What Happens After the Design Process?

You might assume that at this stage your project is over. You’ve been paid for your work and you’re ready to move on to the next project. But wait there’s more…

As designers, we have a bad habit of not promoting our work. Sharing work is what attracts new clients and brings more opportunities. That’s why we recommend adding this stage to your design process.

Update Your Portfolio

Take some time to update your portfolio with your finished project. A portfolio is one of the most important documents we have as designers so it’s important to keep it up to date.

I recommend having a website as a place to post your portfolio. You can use your website, or use tools like Adobe Portfolio as a way to post your work online. It looks more professional than posting your portfolio on a third-party site that shows up in the URL.

You can also share your work on sites like Behance and Dribbble which have a huge network of designers on each platform. 

If you want to learn more check out our Portfolio Guide. 

Social Media

Love it or hate it, we now rely on social media to market ourselves. You can post images throughout the project and tell a story of how you were able to solve a difficult problem using your design ability.

Even if you hate social media, posting your work is a way to build an audience and grow your following. If you want to utilize social media, you can post your insights throughout the project as a way to build up more content. 

Post your work on visual platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and more. 

If you think this is a lot more work, then use features like Batch Content Creation in Adobe Express, which you can download for free. You upload an image, and Adobe Express will format it to fit with different social media platforms.

Write a Case Study

Clients want to know about you and how you work. This is how they build up trust in you before deciding to use your skills for a project.

Remember why we mentioned keeping a Design Journal? You can use this to build up a case study of your project. Tell the story of how you got from an initial idea to a final concept. 

You can use this in your content strategy, by posting it as a blog or a LinkedIn post. 

What’s Your Design Process?

The more times you go through it, the more you’ll begin to get a better understanding of your design process. You can find out different techniques you can use in different stages of the process. Everything covered in this post is how I go through my Design Process. 

The best thing about the Design process is that it enables you to have a structure to move into different fields of design and begin to build interdisciplinary skills. If this sounds interesting to you, check out my 12 Principles of Interdisciplinary Design.

Finally, tell me more about your design process in the comments. Do you have a similar process? What do you do differently?