Stumbling on the Need 

After several iterations of our first investment analytics dashboard we realized a consistent challenge kept coming up: designers and data heads don't speak the same language. For example, one of our top designers sent us an email with a new and improved price performance chart. A couple of the quants looked at the chart and replied in the email, "the axis is going in the wrong direction, dates should increase to the right." The incited designer replied, "well it feels more natural to have it go in the other direction!" That – along with dozens of other experiences – began to shape the design process that we now use internally for digital products (web, mobile, print, etc.) as well as externally when we take on financial institutions as clients to help them build leading digital products.

How is the Design Process Unique?

The process we've developed isn't rocket science – but it's not practiced by most design firms either. We know because we've won bids against shops that definitely outstripped us when it came to firepower; however, the clients understood that we're able to get the UX ("User Experience") right the first time because of our process. And that process was clearly the differentiating factor that won us the contract.

What follows below is a brief summary of our process, but if you're looking for much greater detail so that you can manage the process of digital design in-house, just click on the link below and we'll send it to you.

Our Design Process

Our design process is built on two core principles: Discovery and Design. Design that takes place without proper Discovery has a high likelihood of missing the mark and good Discovery is often the part of the process that decision makers need the most coaching (and convincing!) around. However, when both are done effectively, the end result is a digital experience that becomes an invaluable and integral part of the user's workflow.

Discovery

1. Product Goal: Clearly understand the goals of the product. A web app that's meant to provide business intelligence will be vastly different than one that's meant to collect user data.
    
2. User Attributes: The attributes of the user (frequency using the product, sophistication, etc.) inform both the complexity of the digital experience as well as the UI ("User Interface").
    
3. Underlying Analytics: The product manager (or someone close to the PM) needs to have a granular understanding of the underlying data, lest they fall prey to the "Data / Designer" language gap described above.

Design

1.  Only begin the design process after discovery phase objectives have been clearly defined and agreed upon by decision makers and stakeholders. If you don't have detailed user stories about who's leveraging the new product, then you don't have the needed sounding board to bounce the new product design off of.
    
2. Don't let colors get in the way when you unveil your first iteration of the product. Your first version of the digital product (mobile, web, print) should be a grayscale version. People tend to get hung up on color schemes and it can take away from ensuring that the digital experience accomplishes the specific goals and objectives created during the discovery.