Understanding the interaction design process

How do we work? What are our processes and methods?…There are many ways to accomplish our design goals, and different teams, agencies,…and companies will have their own methods.…Some still work in a traditional waterfall process, where each discipline…completes their contribution before the next discipline begins.…Others are influenced by the agile approach, and the entire team tackles one…component of the project at a time in rapid sprints.…And there are also a myriad of hybrid approaches that leverage iteration,…collaboration, and testing.…

There is no single way to achieve strong designs in the desired outcomes, but at…the core, there are some processes in which nearly all interaction designers…engage: definition, research, ideation, design, prototyping, observation, and…iteration as needed.…Let's go through each of these, starting with definition.…We must define the project, the product, and the design task at hand, and…understand what we are trying to solve or achieve.…How we define a problem determines if and how we are able to solve it.…