UI Design Process in 6 Stages

Starting with a blank artboard and working your way up to final high-fidelity UI Designs necessitates a wide range of skills and experience, and it might be difficult to determine whether to start with a sketch, wireframes, or final designs. I’ve broken down the entire user interface design process into six easy steps, each with its own purpose and aim.

It’s important to remember that in order to make your User Interface designs functional and usable, you’ll need to start with good, insightful user research and data to back up your design decisions, as well as a strong understanding of visual design and interaction. However, for the purposes of this article, we’ll only look at the visual side of the UI Design process.

6 Stages of UI design

Designing user interfaces is, in general, a process of determining how to graphically display the components, state changes, and interactions that a user would encounter when interacting with your on-screen designs. While you may arrange these stages in any sequence you like, and remove or add other phases, this outline will give you a decent sense of the many procedures that may be included, as well as when and why they might be employed.

Stage 1 – Sketches

This is the quickest, least expensive, and least time-consuming approach to get started with your designs. It allows you to get your high-level, top-of-mind ideas off your mind and onto paper or computer. These are usually preliminary sketches of concepts, and if they seem horrible, you’re definitely on the correct route. It’s something you should be able to do on paper, a whiteboard, or using a wireframing programme in a very short amount of time. There is no right or wrong method to draw, however the following are some frequent elements to consider:

What’s on it:

1. Outlined boxes
2. To represent photos, text, and graphics, use placeholder boxes.
3. Depending on the project requirements, this can be done in low, mid, or high fidelity.

Purpose:

1. To begin the process of converting design requirements and layout
2. It helps in the clarification and definition of characteristics required, as well as the rapid shift of concepts.
3. Helps in visualising how displays could appear on various device sizes and in various circumstances.

Tools to Consider:

• Paper
• Whiteboard
• Sketchpad
• Figjam
• Apps for iPad of many types

2. Wireframes or Gray boxing

Wireframes are used to demonstrate how things will look before visual design concepts are implemented. It’s here that the layout and components begin to take shape.

What’s on it:

1. Content of filler
2. I definitely suggest Lorem ipsum or the real content.
3. Stock photos or placeholder images
4. Usually, you may use an existing wireframing UI kit or start from scratch in your design software.

Purpose:

1. Make a rough sketch of the general layout.
2. Determine the proper proportions.
3. Build trust with stakeholders by assisting them in seeing the concept more clearly.
4. A quick and inexpensive technique to generate early concepts or build a low-fidelity prototype

Recommended Tools:

• Justinmind’s wireframing tool
• Existing Wireframe kits for your design app
• Balsamiq

Stage 3 – Component design

Unlike static website landing pages or marketing sites, dynamic user interfaces need you to consider states and conditionals. It also necessitates consistency, the use of excellent usability standards, and the determination of the optimum approach to layout, organise, and reveal information and activities. Thinking in terms of components, atomic elements, and database views can be really useful in this situation.

What’s on it:

1. UI kits
2. Symbols (buttons, badges)
3. Element states (hover state, clicked state)
4. Components (like tables, lists, cards, forms)
5. Actual text

Purpose:

1. Find and fix issues with usability.
2. Find out what’s wrong with your accessibility and responsiveness.
3. Translate ideas into standardised pieces that can be shared with engineers and debated and shared more simply and correctly across teams.

Recommended Tools:

1. Sketch
2. Figma
3. Adobe XD

Stage 4 – User Flows and Task flows

It’s now time to figure out how consumers will go from one screen to the next.

What happens if they click this or if they neglect to fill out this section? Understanding the user’s mental models and your system’s model, as well as the orchestration of the paths and answers that your interface will deliver, are all important.

What’s on it:

1. Wireframes
2. Flow charts
3. Wireflows
4. Arrows
5. Conditionals

Purpose:

1. To display navigational paths
2. To see whether there are any missing states or information
3. To illustrate your user/customer journey’s entry, exit, and decision points

Recommended Tools:

1. Flowmapp
2. Wireflow
3. Justinmind’s wireframing tool

Stage Phase 5 – High fidelity designs

Now that you’ve figured out all of the technical details, it’s time to put your finest graphic, copywriting, and visual design abilities to the test. This is where you can make every pixel as exact and precise as possible, as well as add your own brand aesthetic and theme aspects.

What’s on it:

This should depict everything as it will look in the final result.

Purpose:

1. Make pixel-perfect images
2. Consistency in visual design
3. Incorporate a feeling of your company’s identity.
4. Choose your final design assets.
5. Obtain stakeholders’ final approval.

Recommended Tools:

1. Sketch
2. Figma
3. Adobe XD
4. Dropbox
5. Zeplin

Stage 6 – Prototype

This brings everything together and demonstrates how the app should appear and function.

What’s on it:

1. All displays are high-definition.
2. To simulate what it will be like when the user interacts with the real item, utilise target points.

Purpose:

1. In a virtual environment, connects all of the screens and flows.
2. Before it gets to production, makes sure everything looks well, works properly, and flows as it should.
3. This may be thought of as your product’s pre-code or no-code version.

Tools to Consider:

1. Invision
2. Framer
3. Figma
4. Sketch
5. Adobe XD (Adobe XD) 

Keep in mind that these steps aren’t always sequential; you can be required to take the low-fidelity wireframes from stage 2 and use them to produce a prototype in stage 6. It all relies on the financial and timeline constraints of the job at hand. So familiarising yourself with all six levels and being able to move back and forth between them is crucial.