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Refinement is the process of simplifying the project to its necessary attributes. It involves improving and polishing a design or concept to enhance its functionality, aesthetics, and user experience. This step breaks down what a designer developed during the visualization step and further refines these developments to the project's expected goals. The refinement process includes critical evaluation and iterative improvements. Critical evaluation is the act of reviewing and analyzing the current stage and state of the design. At this point in the refinement process, it is crucial for direct, honest feedback about a design’s strengths and weaknesses. Designers then make adjustments, which involves the process of fixing any mistakes, based on these critical evaluations. These adjustments are key to iterative improvements. Iterative improvements are changes made to enhance the quality of a product’s design or services.
To better understand refinement, consider smartphone design. Before a smartphone is released to consumers, there is a long process of conceptualization, prototyping, and development. Conceptualization is the action or process of forming a concept or idea. Prototyping is the process of creating an early model or sample of a product to test and validate ideas before final production. In design terms, development refers to the process of growth, progress, or evolution of a product.
Critical evaluations and iterative improvements take place in these early stages of design and again after the product has launched. During the conceptualization phase, ideas are shared and expounded on, with stronger concepts moving to the top, and eventually slated for prototyping and development.
The prototyping stage will go through its own refinement process. As prototypes are designed, they will receive critical feedback from stakeholders. Stakeholders are people who have a vested interest in a project’s design and success. Stakeholders can be members of a design team, supervisors, senior level employees, clients, and even investors. Based on stakeholder feedback, designers will revise and build multiple iterations of a prototype until a final design is approved. This image shows a group of designers working through the prototyping process for a mobile application. Each member of the team is a stakeholder in the project and shares a responsibility to contribute to the critical evaluation of the design, suggesting meaningful changes that will be applied to the next iteration.
Even after a smartphone is shipped and made available to consumers, there is an ongoing process of refinement. Smartphone companies continue to evaluate and adapt designs using customer feedback. Refinements continue to occur in software and hardware revisions, leading to new generations of smartphones and new software platforms. Software iterations are commonly numbered as 2.0, 3.0, and so forth.
Collaboration is the process of having multiple participants working together on a project and is a key component in any design project. Depending on the project, a designer’s employment status, and the specifics of a project, collaboration may be as simple as one-on-one communication or a multitiered process. For example, a freelance designer will usually deal directly with clients. Although it is best practice for designers to keep a client’s input on a design at a minimum, allowing the designer to deliver a product based on their skills and expertise, a client must have some level of input, requiring their needs, goals, and ultimate approval of a design. Small companies may have a sales representative who serves as a go-between for the client and the design team. Small design teams may have two or more designers and a design supervisor, art director, or editor who approves work, checks for mistakes, and offers direction to improve overall quality. Large design teams will have multiple designers, who may have specific titles and responsibilities like UX/UI designers, graphic artists, and motion designers.
The image below shows a design team working through a brainstorming session. Remember that the team members are stakeholders because they have a special interest in the design’s success.
Before a project is completed and deliverables are turned over to a client, the design must be tested. Project testing is the process of verifying that a project’s deliverables meet the required standards and perform as expected. It is a crucial part of quality assurance and helps ensure that the final product satisfies the client’s needs and expectations. Project deliverables are the specific outputs, products, or results that must be achieved and provided to fulfill the requirements of a project. They are the tangible or intangible items produced as a result of project activities. Testing occurs in multiple ways depending on the parameters of the project and the project deliverables. It is important to conduct testing to ensure that a design communicates to the end user and that a product or design functions correctly. Failing to test deliverables before publishing, sending them to market, or turning them over to a client puts you at risk of delivering a faulty product. Product testing allows you to check for any errors and make corrections before the final product is shared.
IN CONTEXT
You’re working for a marketing firm, and you’ve been placed on a team creating a website for Surf’s Up Rentals, a real estate company that concentrates on seaside rental properties in the United States and Mexico. The website has been checked with a style guide. A style guide is a document that provides a set of standards for writing, formatting, and designing documents to ensure consistency and coherence across all forms of communication. All of the fonts, graphics, and colors are checked out according to the style guide, so your supervisor asks you to upload the website to a testing server. A testing server is a dedicated environment used to test software, websites, or applications before they are deployed to a production environment. Testing servers allow websites to be tested live for errors and functionality. After you upload the site, you discover that some of the hyperlinks aren’t working. You document the errors and work with your team to correct them. Whenever possible, testing should be part of the collaborative process to make sure that more than one person checks for errors, adding redundant quality assurance checks.
Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY MARIO E. HERNANDEZ FOR SOPHIA LEARNING. PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF USE.
