If youâre a UX designer looking to decrease churn and significantly improve the user experience, you may just need more diamonds in your life. Two diamonds, to be precise: Enter the Double Diamond design process.
Like any other creatives, UX designers often struggle with defining the real ask from stakeholders while delivering an end product that meets those not-well-defined requirements. And because the design process is iterative and involves many approvals from many different people, itâs common to spend endless revisions satisfying everyone in a meeting instead of genuinely improving the end-user experience.
Adding to the complexity is that there are general steps to UX designing, but nothing extremely rigid. Thatâs great for allowing flexibility within an organization, but it can lead to production paralysisâpeople can have different ideas of where to start and what the design process should include.
If that doesnât sound like you, though, itâs possible that your team is actually following the Double Diamond design process already without even knowing it. Once youâve learned more about this process, you can consciously follow it and refine your development process even further.
What is the Double Diamond UX design process?Â
The Double Diamond process allows for divergent and convergent thinking in the design process. It provides a structured framework for designers to follow while allowing flexibility for creativity and exploration, so it can be customized for any situation.Â
We'll go into four stages in the Double Diamond process in more detail, but itâs important to remember that the stages arenât linear. You can revisit stages as often as youâd like to ensure you havenât missed anything important, but itâs important not to rearrange them.
How to complete the Double Diamond UX design process
As we mentioned, there are four fundamental components to the Double Diamond UX design process. Weâll go through what they are and how to complete them.
The first diamond
DiscoveryÂ
This phase is about understanding the problem that needs to be solved and gaining alignment on it. This involves conducting research, user interviews, data analysis, and anything else to help designers understand user needs, behaviors, and pain points. The goal is to uncover improvement opportunities and define the design challenge. In this phase, youâll need to prioritize conducting research and identifying user needs.
DefinitionÂ
Once you have a clear idea of the problem that needs to be solved, you can narrow down the details. Youâll synthesize all your work from the âdiscoveryâ phase. The goal is to clearly articulate the problem statement and set the direction for the design solution. In this phase, you must prioritize developing personas, creating user journey maps, and establishing design requirements.
The second diamond
Development
Youâre off to the races. This is where youâre able to bring your ideas to life. Youâll even be able to start testing your product with end users. Then, based on the testing data, you may want to revisit that first diamond and rework your definition. Or you may find your design is great, but needs a few improvements. This stage typically includes developing prototypes, sketches, or even working models. In this phase, youâll need to prioritize conducting usability tests and iterating.
Delivery
Itâs showtime. After much testing and many (so many) prototypes, itâs time to hand over your masterpiece. But donât be fooledâyouâre not done forever. After all, after the first iPhone came even better iPhones. Once you deliver your finished product, youâll be able to get even better feedback from an even wider audience. In this phase, youâll prioritize collaborating with development teams, QA testing, and preparing for launch by getting marketing involved and consulting PR and sales teams.
Advantages of the Double Diamond UX design process
So why bother with the Double Diamond design process in the first place? It offers several advantages that could help you and your team.
First, it provides a structure for creativity. Have you ever tried conducting a brainstorm without rules? It doesnât go well. Creativity needs structure to thrive, and this design process allows it room and borders to flourish. It also provides a starting point that reveals more profound solutions, itâs flexible enough to allow for divergent thinking, and it empowers designers to take ownership of the process.
What the Double Diamond design process is not
This is a great structured framework for approaching design challenges, but itâs not perfect for every project. Hereâs what the Double Diamond design process isnât:
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A substitute for creativity: Youâll need to still create and iterate. There shouldnât be limits to creative thinking during this process.
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Exclusively for designers: Weâve talked primarily about UX in this post, but Double Diamond design can be used for anyone from marketing to business strategizers.Â
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A standalone methodology: You can use the Double Diamond approach alone. However, it works well alongside other methods, such as Agile, to collaborate and deliver.
Why use the Double Diamond UX design process?Â
The Double Diamond UX Design Process allows convergent and divergent thinking to flourish and eventually coalesce into a user-centric product that capitalizes on the most promising solutions. This design process is iterative and flexible and fits into other methodologies you may already use. Itâs also collaborative and fosters a shared understanding of the problem space. Importantly, it also mitigates risks, which ultimately means releasing a product people actually want onto the market and decreasing wasted time and resources.
Throughout the Double Diamond process, designers are also encouraged to look at the feasibility and impact the solution will have on the broader success of the org, leading to a healthier bottom line and strengthened business overall.
