Let’s talk about the double diamond — a bit of a hot topic in the design realm. Why? Well, it’s a tad controversial because it might oversimplify things.

The design process, truth be told, is more like a wild rollercoaster than a neatly drawn diagram. It’s chaotic, non-linear, and far from the streamlined picture the double diamond paints.

Now, here’s the twist — even though this model might not perfectly mirror the design chaos of real life, it’s oddly great for absolute beginners.

It’s simple, no-nonsense, and just what a newbie needs to kick off their design journey. So, despite the controversy, it’s a fantastic starting point. Let’s see how absolute beginners can absolutely use it.

Take action🏃‍♂️

Read up about the double diamond design process

Step 1: Discover (Understanding users and their problems)

We start with the research stage — the springboard for your personal projects. Here’s the deal: designers are like detectives hunting down and solving real-deal problems. Now, to kick things off, pick an industry you know the ropes of, a domain that tickles your fancy, or a product that’s already part of your daily life.

Your mission? Figure out what’s wrong with it and what’s worth fixing. Dive into conversations with the folks in that industry or domain, or those who swear by that product day in and day out. Sniff out those problems.

You can begin by:

• Reading books: Just Enough Research by Erika Hall and Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal are what I consider a bible of user research. These books are packed with valuable info

• Using research methods listed in DesignKit. Methods like surveys, semi-structured interviews, usability heuristic analysis, competitive analysis, reading existing literature etc. are very commonly used methods to learn about users and their problems.

• The Dovetail research document and the Dovetail blog

• You can also try some underrated research methods: YouTube videos, App store/Play store reviews, Reddit comments and tweets etc.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Learn about research methods through the books suggested or through DesignKit

• Pick an industry you belong to, or choose a domain that interests you, or pick a digital product that you dislike using

• Discover more about the selected through browsing the internet for articles and research papers (desk research). List down what you did not find through the desk research as well

• Find 10 people in the context of what you’ve selected, and talk to each for an hour to uncover insights about the problems they face and the goals they intend to fulfil. Try to also find answers to what you couldn’t find through desk research.

Example🖥️

Let’s say I am someone who plays video games on my desktop a lot. I’ll start my design project by researching the gaming industry, games and how people play them.

Step 2: Define (Funnel down to the most important stuff)

Doing research gives you insights. But not all insights are created equal; some are the gems that steer your design journey. Spot these game-changers and tidy up your research data to unveil the big picture.

DesignKit has listed a lot of research synthesis tools as well. Think ecosystem maps, customer journey maps, user personas, and cluster mapping — these bad boys work wonders in turning your raw research data into sleek, structured maps and insights. It’s like putting your findings on steroids.

Now, armed with these insights, cook up a design brief. Ideally, this should be a funneled down focus for your design project, but broad enough to empower creative thinking.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Synthesise the data obtained from research and pick the most important/impactful insights

• Make a design brief for yourself in order to begin the next stage of the project

Example🖥️

Through my research, I found out that Valorant is a pretty popular video game, but new gamers who pick it up find it difficult to upskill to a basic playable level in it. This makes them feel incapable in front of their peers who are already skilled, and makes them feel bad for losing so many games. In the end, they end up losing a lot of points and this affects their social standing in the gaming world. The brief can be: How might we help new adopters of Valorant upskill quickly in that game so that they can get started with playing competitive matches and earn points.

Step 3: Design (Brainstorm solutions based on the brief to solve the problem you sought to solve)

Only the sky’s the limit here. Get those creative juices flowing and unleash a ton of ideas. And hey, DesignKit has your back with a bunch of idea-generation methods — so go ahead, let your imagination run wild!

Since we’re in the digital product universe, peeking into public design systems is like having a secret weapon. Think Google’s Material, Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, Adobe’s Spectrum — these design systems are out there for the taking.

Now, take those ideas and let them dance into reality through sketches, wireframes, and even high-fidelity mocks. Here’s a pro-tip: before you dive into the nitty-gritty, brainstorm in terms of user flows. Invest your time in high-fidelity only for the ideas that steal the spotlight — the ones with flows that solve the problem well.

Remember those user goals you uncovered in the research phase? Use them as your compass to navigate through ideas.

Ask yourself, “Which idea helps the user nail their goal by solving the problem best?”

That’s your golden ticket to weeding out the meh ideas and spotlighting the ones that truly shine.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Brainstorm ideas that solve the problem you sought out to solve. Begin with user flows and keep sketching/wireframing when ideating the interface.

• Pick the most valuable ideas by weighing them against fulfillment of goals and solutions to the problem.

• Flesh out the ideas in high fidelity. Take help from design systems to take informed decisions about crafting interfaces.

Example🖥️

Few of my ideas can be designing an online course portal for gaming education, or an in-game beginners tutorial, or an in-game bot based mini-game with increasing difficulty etc. to help the users learn. Talking to the users a bit more tells me that the users would rather spend time playing the game than go to another service. Hence I would finalise and flesh out the idea of an in-game bot based mini game in Valorant to put new players in certain situations that repeat in real competitive games and help prepare them for those.

Step 4: Deliver (A fitting end to your design project)

Alright, you’ve wrapped up the design project, but hold your horses, the journey isn’t over just yet. It’s cleanup time! Tidy up those files and document your project through a presentation that walks through the story of your project.

For some top-notch guidance on structuring your presentation, check out UX Collective’s gem titled Case Study Factory. It’s a goldmine of insights. Now, here’s a suggestion: whip up a snazzy PDF or Figma slide deck instead of tossing it onto your website.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Clean your design files and make a separate space for the final designs and your iterations

• Make a PDF/Figma slide deck documenting the story of your design project

Step 5: Take feedback

Now, this step might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but mark my words, it’s a game-changer. Hunt down fellow designers and ask for their feedback, especially those who have the kind of job you’re eyeing in the future.

Here’s a golden nugget for you — ADPList. It’s a blessing. You can set up virtual meetings with seasoned designers in the industry, and get this, it won’t cost you a dime. Every mentor I connected with there dropped gems of feedback when I was navigating the learning curve.

Feeling a bit more adventurous? Cold message designers on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sure, the success rate for setting up meetings might be a tad lower, but fun fact — I found over half of my mentors in this way. Give it a shot!

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Find 5 mentors on ADPList that you would like to get feedback from, and set meetings with them.

• Discuss your project and get feedback from them. Make sure to not take it personally, since you are more than the work you do, and you’ve just begun learning.

Step 6: Implement feedback

Believe it or not, many folks skip this crucial step despite soaking in feedback. Here’s the pro move — leverage that feedback to re-work on your project. Dive into the trenches and rework it until every nugget of feedback you feel makes sense is woven into the project. Consider this your Version 2.0 in the making.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• List down the feedback you receive from the ADPList session during the individual sessions

• Apply all the feedback you received to the project you presented, make a Version 2.0

• Document the Version 2.0 once more in a PDF/figma slide deck

• If after applying a certain feedback, if you feel it doesn’t make your project better, discard the feedback and keep what works. Always apply the feedback before judging it.

Step 7: Repeat

Schedule follow-up meetings with those invaluable mentors you connected with earlier. Engage in meaningful discussions about how you incorporated their feedback.

This isn’t just about honing your design skills; it’s a crash course in collaboration, embracing feedback with a positive mindset, dissecting design decisions, and building a network that lasts.

Personally, I’ve looped through this feedback-rework-feedback cycle a solid 2–3 times before wrapping up a project for good.

And here’s the golden rule — launch into a new project. With each venture, you’re not just accumulating UX design wisdom; you’re evolving. You’ll stumble less on old pitfalls, trip over new ones, and your confidence will be more polished. So, here’s to finishing that project and kicking off the next one. Best of luck!

Thoughts on what tools to learn

Tools may come and go, but the essence of UX design remains steadfast. From the era of crafting mocks in Photoshop to today’s era of sophisticated tools like Figma or Framer, the core purpose endures.

Figma, a go-to tool for mockups and prototypes in many companies, offers a valuable learning opportunity. Copy screens from existing apps, paying meticulous attention to their interface decisions. Strive for precision in replicating every nuance of the original app screen.

Even as you become proficient in Figma, stay attuned to the tool landscape. A mainstream favorite might lose its sheen, paving the way for an emerging tool to take the spotlight. Keep your toolkit adaptable; staying ahead in the dynamic field of UX design requires a flexible approach.

Take action🏃‍♂️

• Screenshot screens from an app you enjoy using

• Import it on a Figma file

• Replicate that screen by building a screen right next to it. You can color-pick colors if you want, but don’t build the new screen on top of the existing one.

A good starter project

Ideally, you want the least friction when you’re starting your first UX project. You can reduce friction by:

• Picking a domain you are already familiar with/are an expert in

• Picking a domain you are extremely passionate about

• Picking an existing product to redesign: Most of the work is already done for you, the challenge here is finding the perfect value addition to the product. You can also learn a lot about interface design and Figma as a tool by replicating their screens while making the high fidelity designs and prototypes.

Some harsh truths

• What I’ve laid out in this guide might seem like a lengthy process, but it’s an invaluable journey to truly grasp UX design. Designers in the industry engage in researching, defining, ideating, delivering, taking feedback, and reworking on a daily basis. Neglecting to invest time in learning these aspects now might lead to challenges in your professional journey.

• It’s improbable that the projects you undertake during this learning phase will be portfolio-ready. They’ll be riddled with mistakes, and after completing several projects, you’ll gain insights that allow you to identify and rectify errors in your earlier work.

• Approaching these projects with a transactional mindset, solely as a means to build a portfolio or secure an internship, can divert your focus from the learning process and lead you on a validation-seeking chase.

Consider these projects ‘money spent’ in learning UX design to a certain level, envisioning how your future projects will benefit from this experience.

• Receiving feedback may initially feel harsh, especially if you’re not accustomed to distancing yourself from your work and viewing it from a third-person perspective. Persevere through this process, consistently seek feedback, and, most importantly, incorporate it into your work. Learning how to handle feedback early on is crucial to avoiding potential challenges in professional relationships later on.

An ideal future

Here’s what happens in reality. Design is a chaotic, non-linear journey and the double diamond does not apply most of the time. Designers don’t spend time on ten research methods and a hundred synthesis methods because they know what exactly is going to yield the answers to the questions they have. This is only possible if you’ve used these methods multiple times, and learnt how to do them right. That’s why we do so many personal projects.

In an ideal future, you’ll have done multiple personal projects. You’ll have taken multiple interviews, sent multiple surveys, made multiple journey maps and ideated multiple user flows etc. till the point you know how to do them right.

In an ideal future, you’ll not rely on the double diamond process, and will make informed decisions about whether to send a survey, do an interview round, or both, based on the needs of the project at hand, and will save time by not using redundant methods. The cookie-cutter process will vanish and you’ll do things on an as-needed basis.

In an ideal future, you will not fixate on methods and processes, and adopt new processes as they get discovered. You’ll keep educating yourself through other books, videos and articles.

I’m confident you’ll reach this stage soon if you keep putting in the effort consistently.

Summing it up

1. Spend less time thinking about how to learn UX design, rather learn it by taking up design projects even before binge-learning methods.

   
   

2. The double diamond process might not apply in the real world, but is a great framework for absolute beginners to get started with their first project because of its simplicity.

   
   

3. Start with the ‘Discover’ stage. Understand the domain, people, their goals and problems.

   
   

4. Move on to the ‘Define’ stage. Discover the most important insights derived from research and use that as a basis to demarcate a focus for your project.

   
   

5. Move on to the ‘Design’ stage. Brainstorm ideas, pick the best ones by weighing them against goals and problems, and make the finalized ones in high fidelity.

   
   

6. Finish with the ‘Deliver’ phase by documenting your work on a slide deck to prepare it for feedback.

   
   

7. Get feedback from experienced designers by setting virtual meetings through ADPList, cold outreach on LinkedIn and Twitter.

   
   

8. List down the received feedback and implement it by reworking your design project.

   
   

9. Return to the mentors who gave you that feedback and discuss its implementation. Repeat the cycle, do more projects.

   
   

10. Learn the mockup-making tool of choice by replicating screenshots of the products you enjoy using to the maximum accuracy.

    
    

11. Pick the domains/industries/products that have the least friction towards you as your initial projects.

    
    

12. Consider your initial projects as the price you pay for learning and don’t expect them to be great. Rather focus on the learning.

    
    

13. Strive to reach a future stage where you have used different methods so many times that you know how to do them right, know what value they bring to the table so you are able to select the right ones based on the needs of a project.