“Be intentional in your design, and every click becomes a meaningful connection.”

Crafting good designs isn’t just about pixels, but its about purpose. I strive to tether every design process to a clear objective, ensuring each step taken brings me that much closer to the final solution.

my DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Content-first design

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration. To build the right design for any project, I have to know what the content is before I start designing. Ideally, I have the actual content in hand; when I don’t, I at least spend time on a content strategy before diving into actual work.

Prioritise user needs

Good design at its core is about understanding people and their needs in order to create the best possible tools for themHaving a fundamental understanding of who my users are and their primary needs are critical to a good design solution. Some kind of user research always better than no user research.

Prototypes over mockups

The key to a more effective design review process has always been responsive, interactive prototype design.
Where possible, I prefer prototypes over static screens. Often times, it is difficult for everyone to see beyond a simple representation and appreciate the potential for beauty and functionality.

Make it simple

Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.
I believe in doing the heavy lifting and hard work to ensure that users can easily discover and navigate around my products with ease. Users should be able to accomplish tasks in the easiest, most straightforward way (without any training or tutorials, if possible).

Each step affords an opportunity to rethink, relearn and reboot as needed. The process is rarely linear".

It is common for initial stages of design projects to begin with a state of disorder and unpredictability. Having a framework helps jump-start the process for almost any problem. While there is no one-size-fits all process, I still follow a general process for every project but apply a diverse set of tools and approaches depending on project needs.

my DESIGN PRocess

Understand the requirements

I usually start off any projects by trying to set the foundations right — understanding the business goals, current challenges, resources on hand, and deliverables expected of me. I also like to take some time to read what existing research or literature is saying about the problem we are facing on hand.

Identify the problem

I dive deep into the minds of our target users to eliminate uncertainty and guesswork — to ensure that I am solving for user needs. I collect information by speaking to stakeholders, target users, scanning through existing research if any, conducting surveys. If time isn’t on my side, I will at least try to conduct guerrilla interviews to ensure I’m not designing blindly.

Synthesise the results

During the synthesis phase, I aim to gain a comprehensive understanding of user pain points. I practise reframing the different point of views to see a problem from different angles. This involves identifying distinct user archetypes, defining the guiding design principles, and formulating a concise problem statement.

Brainstorm solutions

I have two rules set when entering this phase. Defer judgment, and reach for quantity. I like to gather key stakeholders, colleagues, developers, to brainstorming sessions to leverage different perspectives and come up with different solutions for defined problem statements.

Prototype ideas

‘Prototype as if you know you’re right, but test as if you know you’re wrong’.
Objective here is to answer critical questions early and keep myself away from forming attachments. I start transforming viable ideas into mid to high-fi figma prototypes. I tend to match the fidelity of their prototype.

Test, iterate and test again

I find this phase most exciting, where I take a step back, and validate my assumptions and design decisions with actual users. The results provide me with valuable (sometimes surprising) insights on what needs to be changed or improved.

How I work on my design projects

character traits

People’s Person

I find value in fostering collaboration, bringing people together to share ideas, securing early buy-in from stakeholders, and facilitating ideation workshops. I derive satisfaction from the process of collectively building products through collaboration.

PM / Designer hybrid

Having spent a decade working in project management, I often find myself writing product requirements docs, working with other functional groups to receive approvals, gain consensus, and present my teams vision to leadership to secure their buy-in.

“Be intentional in your design, and every click becomes a meaningful connection.”

Each step affords an opportunity to rethink, relearn and reboot as needed. The process is rarely linear".

How I work on my design projects

riaamoorthy@gmail.com