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Module 01 · 20 min

The UX design process

UX work follows a design-thinking loop. You research first, turn findings into clear documents, sketch structure, build a prototype people can try, then change the work from feedback.

Five-stage UX design thinking loop: Discover, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test
The five stages loop — after testing, you often return to discover or define.
  1. 01Discover
  2. 02Define
  3. 03Ideate
  4. 04Prototype
  5. 05Test

1. Discover (empathy)

Understand business goals and user goals. Stakeholder interviews, competitor analysis, and user research belong here. This stage is also called the empathy step — you learn before you invent.

2. Define

Use what you learned in discover to make shared documents: a user persona, an empathy map, and related research summaries so the problem is agreed before you design screens.

3. Ideate

Design the structure of the product: information architecture, flow charts, and the user journey. You explore more than one path before locking a layout.

4. Prototype

A prototype can be wireframes or higher-fidelity layouts. It shows how the product will function so someone can try the path without a finished app.

Two smartphone wireframes showing low-fidelity and mid-fidelity prototype layouts
Start with rough wireframes. Add detail only after the path is clear.

5. Test

Test the prototype with real people. Change the work from their feedback. You can loop back to an earlier stage — do not skip discover because a screen looked interesting.

Illustration of a designer observing someone testing a phone prototype and taking feedback notes
Watch people try the prototype. Notes from testing beat opinions about how it should look.

Steps for a new mobile app

On a typical mobile-app project, the same process shows up as a practical checklist. Later modules walk each step in more detail.

  • Competitor research and analysis
  • User research
  • User persona and empathy mapping
  • Information architecture
  • User flow and low-fidelity wireframes
  • User journey and user testing
  • UX case study presentation