3rd and final part of our series of articles dedicated to the design sprint. Generating ideas is the second step in the process of designing a web project. To do this, the field of UX design offers numerous tools and methods to be deployed through workshops, involving both the client and the provider. This step is followed by a phase of decision-making, prototyping, and testing, all essential for evaluating the quality of the ideas.
Imagine the user experience of your web project
Idea generation is the second stage in the web project design process. It takes place right after an initial phase of understanding your users—a crucial time to immerse yourself in the subject, frame clear problems, and get to know your target audiences.
This stage also coincides with the second day of the design sprint we discussed in this article. As a reminder, the design sprint is a UX design methodology for co-creation centered on the user. Invented at Google Ventures and formalized by Jake Knapp, it aims to design a digital product in 5 days through a series of workshops bringing together several participants: client-side stakeholders, UX design experts, and a facilitator from the service provider. Each day of the design sprint corresponds to a specific stage of work: understand (day 1), ideate (day 2), decide (day 3), prototype (day 4), test (day 5).
The stages—ideate, decide, prototype, and test—that we focus on here are particularly helpful to:
- Study the competition.
- Generate innovative ideas.
- Sketch the initial solutions.
- Prioritize the best ideas.
- Define the user journeys to be tested.
- Draft a requirements document for the prototypers.
- Build the prototypes (mockups).
- Test the prototypes.
- Debrief the Design Sprint.
Generating ideas is an art!
On the second day of the design sprint, the goal is to generate ideas and sketch solutions! This is the day when the project becomes much more concrete. For this, you'll need paper and pens. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be Picasso!
The day begins with the “Inspiring Demos” workshop (Lightning demos for our English-speaking friends). This is an exercise in researching inspiring ideas (benchmarking) from competitors (from the market and other sectors). Usually, each participant is asked to find 3 inspiring examples and present them to the group.
Formalize your ideas
At the end of the benchmark, it is time to formalize the ideas. To do this, we follow these steps:
- The ideas: participants review everything that has been done and write down the key ideas they want to test.
- The notes: during this phase, participants refine their initial ideas to sketch out the first versions of solutions to prototype.
- The crazy eight: this involves quickly drawing 8 sketches, or 8 possible variations of the selected idea. With 1 minute per box, let intuition take over!
- Sharing ideas: time is set aside to share all the ideas, explain them, and react, in order to refine them one last time before the next day.
Decide: how to select the best ideas?
This step corresponds to the third day of the design sprint. After an opening phase with ideation, it's important to refocus the discussion and guide participants toward making choices. In practical terms, decisions will need to be made about what to keep and what to leave behind.
Making choices, a matter of method
The day begins with a workshop simply titled Art Museum. All the ideas produced the previous day are displayed on the walls of the room. Much like a museum visit, participants can wander around the room to critically admire the works produced. Each person will then be responsible for:
- Voting by placing stickers on their favorite solutions.
- Writing down any questions they have about the proposed solutions (on a post-it note to be placed under the relevant solution).
Discussion to inform decisions
The participants will then discuss and question the proposed solutions. The aim is to inform the group’s judgment before the final vote. In light of the information shared, some solutions may have the chance to appear in a new light and be reconsidered.
The workshop facilitator will be responsible for presenting the solutions. For each one, they will ask the following question: "Among those who voted for this solution, can you tell me what you find interesting about this idea?" They will also ask the questions listed under each solution.
The final countdown
Once all the solutions have been discussed, a new voting session is organized. The result of the vote will determine the solution to be pursued. It will be tested on the final day of the design sprint.
Plan the user journey
The second part of the day is dedicated to writing usage scenarios and preparing the future prototype of the site (wireframes). More specifically, the purpose is to list the main cases for which a user might come to our site (their goals). This work can be summarized in three steps:
- Step 1: Writing test scenarios.
Each person prepares up to 3 usage scenarios in the following format: action verb in the imperative + complement. For example, for a travel site: “Buy a ticket to travel to Marseille on 12/20/2024.” After sharing, we select the most interesting scenarios we want to test on the last day of the design sprint. - Step 2: User flow.
For each scenario, participants write out their ideal user journey (referring to their experience map). Again, for each scenario, we compare and vote for the journey to keep. - Step 3: Storyboard.
For each journey, participants sketch out all the pages as precisely and explicitly as possible so the designer only has to finalize and create the prototype the next day.
Prototype your web project
The prototyping phase corresponds to the fourth day of the design sprint. For this phase, client-side participants are not invited. It is up to us, the service provider, to create a clickable prototype in one day, taking the form of a mock-up on the design software Figma.
Test your prototypes before going further
The testing phase is the fifth and final day of the design sprint. The goal is to test all the work done during the design sprint with future users!
User testing
A user test involves putting several users in the actual site usage context (in front of our prototypes). They are then observed as they perform specific tasks (our usage scenarios) to identify roadblocks, flaws in the user journey and ergonomics. The test also encourages users to verbalize their thoughts. The idea is simple: the more feedback we get, the more we can adjust the site to ultimately improve the user experience.
During the design sprint, tests are conducted by the facilitator. Test slots for 5 users need to be scheduled in advance. According to a study by the Norman Group, this number is enough to detect over 85% of UX design issues. These interviews usually last 1 hour per person. To make the most of them, sessions can be recorded and the reactions reviewed later.
Analysis and reporting of tests
At the end of the day, the sprint facilitator will offer a brief hot debrief on the tests conducted – note that clients can also participate in the tests as observers. Of course, some time must be allowed for a thorough analysis of the tests to be carried out based on the video recordings and an evaluation grid. The analysis is then presented to the client through a workshop and a detailed report. Afterwards, three types of situations are generally observed.
- Total success:
Only positive feedback or minor adjustments. Congratulations, the design sprint is a success and three-quarters of the design work is done! All that's left is to finalize the mock-ups so they are visually impactful and in line with the brand’s visual identity (UI design). - Improvements needed:
There are some positives and some things to revisit. In this case, we also provide the client with our recommendations. After discussion, we apply these changes to the mock-ups. - Concept failure:
This is a rare case, but it can happen. Users do not see the value of the site or of what is being proposed by the design sprint participants. In this case, the concept needs to be rethought. But it’s better to discover this now than to have incurred substantial costs developing a site that won't be used!
Once the corrections are made, a second phase of testing is recommended to ensure everything works once the design is applied.
Are you interested in the design sprint concept?
Feel free to contact us to discuss it or check out our different articles on the topic!
To go further, discover the Design Sprint reference, the book by Jake Knapp.
Our series on design sprint:
