Innovator's Blueprint
One Sentence Summary
I want to master the process of having an idea, conducting initial market research and customer discovery, and designing a mockup ready to be developed into an actual product (web or app development).
Purpose
The primary motivation and objectives behind this project.
I want to be sure that whatever ideas and opportunities come to my mind I know is a top-tier opportunity, and not just a shitty opportunity with little possibility of return.
I want to be able to design any good ideas that I have researched.
I want to templatize the steps in the process of innovation so that I can be a prolific serial entrepreneur.
Outcome Visioning
Desired outcome of the project. Wild success.
By the end of this project, I will be able to take an idea I have thought of, research it to determine its viability, conduct customer discovery/use lean methodology to refine the idea, and then create a mockup that is ready to be developed.
Timeline & Milestones
Up-to-date timeline of project.
UX/UI Design Fundamentals
- Get a feel for the scope
- Learning Objectives:
- Understand the foundational concepts and resources in UX and UI design.
- Familiarize with Figma and basic graphic design principles.
- Identify key skills and exemplary work from other designers.
- Outcomes:
- Broad knowledge of the fundamental topics and resources in UX/UI design.
- Skills: Topic identification, resource categorization, foundational knowledge in UX/UI.
- Insight into the hard skills and portfolio styles of successful designers.
- Skills: Analytical skills, understanding of industry standards and trends.
- Tasks:
- Accumulate the foundational resources and topics of UX and UI design, Figma, Graphic Design. (Libraries, portfolios, among others.) | due date: 2024-06-08.
- Go through all links/resources and add to knowledge tree | due date: 2024-07-02.
- Research other designers (their hard skills) and their portfolios.
- Learn Figma
- Learning Objectives:
- Gain proficiency in using Figma for UX/UI design.
- Develop skills in replicating existing website and app designs.
- Enhance ability to design both web and mobile interfaces.
- Outcomes:
- Mastery of essential Figma tools and features.
- Skills: Figma interface navigation, component creation, prototyping.
- Ability to replicate and learn from existing website and app designs.
- Skills: Design replication, attention to detail, UI design techniques.
- Completion of advanced Figma courses to solidify design skills.
- Skills: Advanced Figma tools, complex design creation, project management in Figma.
- Tasks:
- Learn UI (and Graphic) Design Fundamentals
- Learning Objectives:
- Understand the principles of visual theory and its application in UI and graphic design.
- Develop skills in accuracy and attention to detail in design projects.
- Learn to design with user perception in mind, focusing on visual hierarchy and trends.
- Gain proficiency with design tools and techniques, including iconography and illustration.
- Outcomes:
- Ability to use visual theory to create clear and effective design elements.
- Skills: Typography, coloristics, composition, visual theory.
- Enhanced accuracy and consistency in design projects.
- Skills: Visual language and guidelines, visual research, visual consistency.
- Expertise in designing user-friendly interfaces that attract and retain user attention.
- Skills: Visual trends following, perception design, visual hierarchy.
- Proficiency in creating graphic elements that enhance user experience.
- Skills: Iconography, illustration, promo-materials, graphic design.
- Tasks:
- Conduct a UI case study
- Learning Objectives:
- Develop the ability to critically analyze and evaluate existing user interfaces.
- Learn how to identify and solve usability issues through heuristic evaluation.
- Gain experience in conceptualizing and adding new features to enhance user experience.
- Outcomes:
- Proficiency in conducting heuristic analysis/evaluation of user interfaces.
- Skills: Heuristic principles, usability evaluation, identifying design flaws.
- Ability to propose and design additional features for existing applications.
- Skills: Feature conceptualization, user experience improvement, prototyping new features.
- Tasks:
- Perform a heuristic analysis/evaluation of a selected application | due date:
- Conceptualize and design a new feature for an existing app | due date:
- Learn Design Processes
- Learning Objectives:
- Understand various design process models and their applications.
- Learn to build, maintain, and scale effective design processes.
- Gain knowledge of methodologies such as agile, kanban, waterfall, scrum, and lean UX.
- Develop skills in optimizing design processes for better efficiency and quality.
- Outcomes:
- Mastery of different design process models and methodologies.
- Skills: Design process models, agile/kanban/waterfall/scrum/lean UX methodology.
- Ability to create and adapt design processes tailored to specific projects.
- Skills: Design processes creation, situational adaptation, process scaling.
- Proficiency in identifying and implementing optimization opportunities in design processes.
- Skills: Data-driven design, product team collaboration, design systems creation and management, design documentation.
- Tasks:
- Research and document design process models and methodologies | due date: 2024-07-30
- Implement a design process on a sample project, exploring new methods and adjusting to specific situations | due date: 2024-08-10
- Identify and document opportunities for optimizing the design process and improving quality | due date: 2024-08-20
- Create and manage design systems including kits, guidelines, and libraries | due date: 2024-08-30
- Learn UX Fundamentals
- Learning Objectives:
- Understand general UX design patterns and guidelines.
- Develop skills in analysis and synthesis for complex systems.
- Learn to conceptualize design solutions based on data and feasibility.
- Gain proficiency in prototyping and iterative design.
- Master evaluation techniques to validate design solutions.
- Develop UX writing skills for effective user guidance.
- Outcomes:
- Knowledge of general UX patterns and psychological principles.
- Skills: General UX patterns and guidelines, psychology (laws, principles, biases), user engagement (attraction, gamification).
- Ability to analyze and synthesize design insights for better performance.
- Skills: System thinking, audience description (personas, empathy mapping, scenarios, JTBD), experience mapping (CJM, workflow, service map).
- Proficiency in creating conceptual design solutions.
- Skills: Ideation and creativity, information architecture, conceptual design, content strategy, inclusive design (accessibility).
- Competence in creating and iterating prototypes.
- Skills: Storyframing, sketches, wireframing, interactive prototyping, prototyping.
- Expertise in evaluating design solutions using various methods.
- Skills: Expert evaluation, heuristics evaluation, gap analysis, moderative usability testing, accessibility evaluation, unmoderated usability testing (split tests, 5-second tests, user feedback), evaluation, guerilla testing.
- Ability to write effective UX content.
- Skills: UX writing for calls to action, user instructions, error messages, etc.
- Tasks:
- Find problems to solve and develop mockups
- Learning Objectives:
- Identify real-world problems and develop mockup solutions.
- Learn to write Product Request Documents.
- Gain skills in documenting and presenting design iterations.
- Understand how to evaluate the potential success of new product designs.
- Outcomes:
- Proficiency in identifying and solving design problems.
- Skills: Problem identification, mockup development, user and business perspective analysis.
- Ability to create detailed Product Request Documents.
- Skills: Documenting product requirements, defining problems, success metrics.
- Mastery in documenting design processes and iterations.
- Skills: Design documentation, annotation, transparency in design iterations.
- Capability to assess the viability and frequency of use for new products.
- Skills: User research, rapid feedback, user flow creation, responsive web design consideration.
- Tasks:
- Take up case studies for app ideas I have and want to build.
- Write a Product Request Document. Job of a product manager
- Document your design. Annotate why you made certain iterations.
- Define problems from user and business perspectives, including potential revenue and success metrics.
- Talk about project, process, results (before and after), impact, and contact info.
- User research. Rapid feedback sessions
- User flow. Focus on the happy path. No need for the huge decision tree.
- Iterations. Document different designs for transparency and ease of presentation.
- Learn to Design Design Systems
- Learning Objectives:
- Understand the principles and components of effective design systems.
- Develop the ability to create scalable and maintainable design systems.
- Learn to implement and document design systems for consistent user experiences.
- Gain skills in collaborating with product and engineering teams to integrate design systems into projects.
- Outcomes:
- Proficiency in creating comprehensive design systems.
- Skills: Design system principles, component creation, scalability, maintainability.
- Ability to document and standardize design elements for team use.
- Skills: Documentation, standardization, guideline creation.
- Tasks:
- Research and study existing design systems. Review and analyze popular design systems (e.g., Material Design, Carbon Design System, Fluent Design System) | due date: 2024-09-01.
- Create a design system for a sample project. Develop a comprehensive design system including components, guidelines, and patterns | due date: 2024-09-15.
- Document the design system. Create detailed documentation for the design system to ensure it is easily understandable and usable | due date: 2024-09-20.
- Implement the design system in a project | due date: 2024-09-30.
- Evaluate and iterate on the design system | due date: 2024-10-10.
- Continued Learning
- Read three books a month from this guide | from: 2024-06-10 to 2025-06-02.
- User Friendly by Cliff Kaung and Robert Fabricant
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
- Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug
- Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelly
- Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
- The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
- Design Thinking Playbook by Michael Lewrick, et al
- Change by Design by Tim Brown
- Building Better Products by Laura Klein
- The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Oslen
- Hooked by Nir Eyal
- Talking to Humans by Giff Constable
- The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
- 100 Things by Susan Weinschenk
- Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kanheman
- About Face by Alan Cooper, et al
- Design for Perfect Screen by Tal Florentin
- Design Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell, et al
- Information Architecture by Donna Spenser
- Microinteractions by Dan Saffer
- Evil by Design by Chris Nodder
- Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
- Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
- Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan and Steven Schoger
- Microcopy by Kinneret Yifrah
- Strategic Writing for UX by Torrey Promajesrsky
- Principles of Mobile App Design by Think with Google
- Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski
- Atomic Design by Bard Frost
- Design System Handbook by Designbetter.co
- Hack the Design System by Capgemini Invent
- Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
- Mobile Usability by Jakob Nielsen
- Sprint by Jake Knapp
- Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf
- UX Strategy by Jaime Levy
- Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
- Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
- How Attention Works by Stefan Van Der Stigchel
- Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, et al
- Intuitive Design by Everett McKay
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley
- Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro
- Observing the User Experience by Elizabeth Goodman
- Seductive Interaction Design by Stephen Anderson
- Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal
- The Design of Business by Roger Martin
- UX For Lean Startups by Eric Ries
- Information Architecture by Louis Rosenfield
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
- Rework by Jason Fried
- The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
Market Research and Competitive Analysis
Lean Methodology and Customer Discovery
- Make a plan and list out resources I will use, such as "The Startup Owner's Manual" by Steve Blank | due date: 2024-09-02.
- TBD.
Progress Tracking
Edits to timeline and explanation for delay.
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Resources
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