User Research!!!!

When you get a project to design you obviously have to start somewhere. There many different UX journey maps, made by many different designers. Some have 5 steps, some have 6 or even 8. Regardless of the stops along the way they all start with the "Research and Define" stages.

You can't start on the design until you know the "Why". Who are the users? Why do they need this product? Who is the competition? What are the competitor pain points? These along with many other questions need to be answered before you even open Figma or XD.

The user is the reason!

Look, I get it. In today’s day and age there is focus on standing out with “cool” designs. You can scroll TikTok, Instagram and, LinkedIn to see thousands just posting their designs. But why? They post it without every posting a case study. They post it without talking about the users. They just say “look what I can do” and ask for praise.

I am not trying to be a gatekeeper and tell you that I am the end all be all of UI/UX Design, but we have to be consistent. I talk about on my LinkedIn all the time about the user and how the user is the reason. Hell, it’s the first word in the title! USER Experience/ USER Interface! Yet that seems to be forgotten sometimes. Focus on the user, not the design.