It’s no secret that UI/UX is a team game. UI/UX projects benefit from multiple perspectives coming together to create the best design solution! So, how do you solve a big problem a client? We’re glad you asked.

The first step to is to understand basic UI/UX principles and how they work in a team environment.

Understanding a Design Sprint:

Google came up with what is now known as a Design Sprint. It’s a 5-day workshop where a team takes a user problem and works to understand and solve the problem through design.

In the Design Sprint, each of the 5 days has a purpose and a goal for the day:

• Day 1: Understand
• Day 2: Sketch
• Day 3: Decide
• Day 4: Prototype
• Day 5: Validate

How do I know when a Design Sprint is the right solution?

If any of these apply to your problem, it’s time for a Design Sprint:

1. It’s a big project with many screens or sections
2. It’s a complex problem that involves deep thinking and brainstorming
3. It’s an obvious solution to a user problem, but you’re worried you may not have explored all options
4. There is a current problem in the user journey that is costing the business revenue

Pitfalls of not following UI/UX methods:

Without properly going through the correct stages, you can run the risk of creating band-aid changes. This is when the result doesn’t solve the real problem but hides the blemish until the root of the problem can be resolved.

Creating a band-aid solution is sometimes necessary from a business perspective but not advised on a regular basis.

If your client needs a solution quickly but the problem is more time consuming, it can be effective to institute what we call a Stop-Gap measure. This can help lessen the pain points of the user in the meantime while the bigger solution is be developed.  

Band-aid fixes can also often cause more issues than solve problems. Creating too many band-aid solutions causes tech debt. Tech debt is when a company accrues so many tech problems due to band-aid fixes that they have a debt of new problems.

Iris Design Collaborative Design Sprints:

Here at Iris Design Collaborative, we take our own spin on the Design Sprint!

Using the Design Sprints created by Google as a base, we’ve come up with a faster, more effective and efficient way to solve big UI/UX problems in the same or less amount of time.

Our Design Sprints are conducted by 2-3 people: the Sprint Master and the designer(s). The people involved in the sprint work closely together to get the project completed. We follow the same 5-day guidelines, but we adjust and compress it depending on the project and what the needs are.

Important Note: When starting a new assignment, the key is to section it out into smaller pieces, as to not overwhelm your team members.

Benefits of team collaboration:

Here are just a few benefits we see from Design Sprints:

• Team brainstorming allows for multiple ideas from different perspectives
• The team shares a group ownership of the project and has a personal investment in making sure the project runs smoothly
• Industry and competitor research help us take a deep dive into our client’s business needs so that we understand the user and client better
• Sketching and wire-framing help ensure the function is first and foremost
• We’re able to give our clients a timeline for each step of the way
• All questions on potential flows and functions are solved before going into screen designs and prototyping, making it easier for the development team to implement with minimal questions

So the next time you’ve got a big UI/UX project coming your way, take a deep breath and know that you’ve got it! You’re ready to start tackling your next design problem with the help and support of your awesome design team.

Interested in chatting more with us about UI/UX design? Contact us at info@irisdesigncollaborative.com.

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