UXD Frameworks Overload - Which to Use and When

User-Centred Design (UCD) is a design philosophy and process that places the user at the core of product development. It emphasizes understanding user needs, preferences, and limitations at every stage of the design process.

UCD is not a standalone methodology but rather a foundational approach that can be integrated with various frameworks like the Double Diamond Model, Design Thinking, Agile UX, and Lean UX. These frameworks provide structure, while UCD ensures that the user's perspective remains central throughout the design and development process.

For instance, for innovation projects, the Double Diamond model is used when we are part of a design and develop team whereas Design Thinking is used when only iterated prototypes are required.

While these frameworks share common principles—like user-centredness, iterative development, and collaborative teamwork—they each offer unique approaches and tools tailored to different project needs.

Double Diamond Model – To understand problems deeply and deliver novel solutions to address the problem space holistically

The Double Diamond framework is a design process model developed by the UK Design Council in 2005. It provides a visual map of the design process, emphasizing the importance of understanding the problem thoroughly before developing solutions.

·    Discover: Conduct user research to gather insights.

·    Define: Narrow down the focus to key issues.

·    Develop: Create solutions through prototyping and iteration.

·    Deliver: Finalize and launch the product.

When to Use

Suitable For

Complex, Ill-Defined Problems: When the problem isn't clearly understood and requires exploration to define. Deep User Understanding Required: When gaining in-depth insights into user needs, behaviours, and motivations is crucial. Innovation and Creative Solutions: When the project demands innovative thinking and out-of-the-box solutions. Comprehensive Design Process Needed: When a full end-to-end design process from research to delivery is necessary. Multi-Stakeholder Involvement: When projects involve multiple stakeholders and require alignment throughout different phases.

New Product Development: Especially when creating novel products or services that require extensive user research and testing. Service Design Initiatives: Projects involving the design or improvement of services with multiple touchpoints and user interactions. Redesigning Existing Solutions: When overhauling existing products to better meet evolving user needs. Social Impact Projects: Addressing societal challenges that need innovative and empathetic solutions. Cross-Functional Collaboration Projects: Where designers, developers, and other professionals need to work closely together across different stages.

Design Thinking – To discover problems, generate novel ideas and select-prototype-test-iterate on winning concepts

Design Thinking is a non-linear, iterative process comprising stages like Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. It emphasizes understanding the human side of problems, encouraging innovative thinking and user-centric solutions.

·    Empathize: Understand users' needs and challenges through research

·    Define: Synthesize findings to define the core problems

·    Ideate: Generate creative solutions through brainstorming

·    Prototype: Build tangible representations of ideas

·    Test: Evaluate prototypes with users and gather feedback

When to Use

Suitable For

Complex, Ill-Defined Problems: When the problem isn't clearly understood and requires exploration to define. Innovation and Ideation: When the goal is to generate innovative ideas and creative solutions. User-Centered Focus: When deep empathy and understanding of user needs are essential. Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Ideal when involving stakeholders from various disciplines for diverse perspectives.

Early-Stage Projects: Initiatives that are in the conceptual phase and need definition. Product Redesigns: When rethinking existing solutions to better meet user needs. Service Design: Designing or improving services where user experience is critical. Strategic Planning: Long-term projects that require a thorough understanding of user and market dynamics.

Lean UX – To build the minimum of a solution for the purposes of measuring its effectiveness and learning from it until its ready for primetime

Lean UX focuses on minimizing waste and maximizing value by prioritizing only essential deliverables. It relies heavily on iterative cycles of Build-Measure-Learn, promoting collaboration and quick adjustments based on real user feedback.

·     Minimal Viable Products (MVPs): Develop basic versions to test hypotheses

·     Continuous Learning: Adapt based on user feedback and data

·     Collaboration: Work closely with all stakeholders throughout the process

When to Use	Suitable For
Fast-Paced Environments: When speed is crucial, such as in startups or competitive markets. Limited Resources: When time and resources are constrained, and efficiency is key. Continuous Learning: When frequent user feedback is necessary to guide the product development. Minimal Viable Products (MVPs): Ideal for developing MVPs to test hypotheses with minimal investment.	Startup Projects: Where quick validation of ideas can determine the project's viability. Feature Enhancements: When adding new features to existing products and needing quick user feedback. Cross-Functional Teams: Teams that collaborate closely and need to integrate design and development efficiently. Projects with Uncertainty: When assumptions need to be tested rapidly to reduce risks.

Design Sprints – To test or validate ideas very quickly in a structured, time-boxed process.

Design Sprints are a time-constrained, five-phase process that leverages design thinking to solve critical business problems efficiently. Developed by Google Ventures, this framework enables teams to rapidly ideate, prototype, and test solutions with real users within a week, reducing the risks associated with launching new products or features.

·    Time-Constrained Process: A structured five-day framework that accelerates problem-solving and decision-making.

·    Cross-Functional Collaboration: Involves key stakeholders from various disciplines to bring diverse perspectives.

·    Rapid Prototyping and Testing: Quickly create prototypes and gather immediate user feedback to validate ideas.

When to Use

Suitable For

Urgent Problems Needing Quick Solutions: When facing critical challenges that require immediate attention and resolution. Validating Ideas Before Development: To test concepts and gather user feedback before investing significant resources. Aligning Teams: When there's a need to bring cross-functional teams together to focus on a common goal. Exploring New Opportunities: When venturing into new markets or products and needing to assess viability quickly.

New Product Development: Ideal for launching new products or features where rapid validation is essential. Complex Challenges: Suited for tackling intricate problems that benefit from concentrated effort and diverse input. Innovation Teams and Startups: Teams that operate in fast-paced environments and require swift innovation cycles. Projects with High Uncertainty: When there are many unknowns, and rapid testing of assumptions is necessary to reduce risks.

Agile UX – To design features that are already in the backlog for development using UX principles of prototyping, testing and iterating

Agile UX integrates UX design within the Agile development framework, ensuring that design activities align with development sprints. It allows for rapid iterations, regular user feedback, and the ability to adapt to changes quickly.

·     Sprints: Aligning design tasks with development sprints.

·     Flexibility: Adapting to changes rapidly.

·     Communication: Keeping constant dialogue between designers and developers

When to Use

Suitable For

Agile Development Environments: When the project follows Agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban. Iterative Release Cycles: When product development is broken into sprints with regular releases. Collaborative Workflows: When designers need to work closely with developers and other team members throughout the process. Evolving Requirements: Projects where requirements may change, necessitating a flexible approach.

Software Development Projects: Especially where development and design need to be synchronized. Large-Scale Products: Where ongoing updates and maintenance are part of the project lifecycle. Continuous Improvement Initiatives: When the product is continuously evolving based on user needs and market trends. Teams Embracing DevOps Culture: Where integration between development and operations is seamless.

Framework Cheatsheet

Double Diamond – we don’t understand the problem enough

“Are our digital touchpoints working? Things seem to be breaking down. We should deeply understand the problem and come up with different solutions then converge on a comprehensive solution to address all the different segments of users.”

Design Thinking – we do not know yet what we are going to make

“Let’s find out why citizens find it difficult to exercise more and prototype some innovative (even crazy) solutions and test them with citizens!”

The design challenges could be: “How might we get citizens to exercise more by leveraging our Healthy365 app?”

Lean UX – we know what to make but do not have a clear definition

“What features should our recipe module have and how deep should each feature be? Let’s build, measure, learn.” 

Design Sprints – we know what to make but do users want this?

“I think we should build a dashboard, and it should have these features. But not entirely sure if users want this or they value it enough to pay for it!”

Agile UX – we have a clear definition of what we want to make

“We are working this user story in the next sprint: As a user, I want to save this event to at list so that I can book it later. Let’s get the UX-UI team to wireframe, test, iterate and design to show the placement of the ‘Save’ button and the ‘Saved’ events page.”