This phase occurs right at the start of a project before any design or development work has begun and involves finding out any key information that will can often form the basis of the project design strategy as well as a key point of reference to help with design decisions once the project has commenced.
The benefits of conducting thorough research are significant as it can unearth information important enough to mean the difference between project succes and failure.
The research and discovery phase can include any or all of the following (depending on the type and scale of a given project):
- Interviews with business stakeholders to ensure that business goals and objectives are crystalised and prioritised
- User interviews covering such topics as usage, devices, tasks, time spent, frustrations, likes, ideas for improvements
- User task based analysis
- User information held within a marketing department
- User trends and digital savviness on a country by country or region by region basis
- Visitor stats/usage analysis
- Existing and forcasted user trends (e.g. device usage)
- Competitor site/application analysis
- Market reports and current news
- Strengths and weaknesses of chosen development platform
- Interviews with customer facing/focused departments such as call centres and marketing departments
A key aspect of the research and discovery phase is the report summary and recommendations, where I will put forward suggestions for discussion and analysis prior to the formulation of the project design strategy
If you'd like to know more about my research and discovery phase skills and experience please do get in touch.
(available
to discuss new projects)
