You’re about to start a new software project. Which design services should you choose?

Defining a design brief is one of the most crucial steps to start a software project. The brief should include important inputs such as "what are you building", "why are we building it", a clear DACI, an outline of user journeys/jobs to be done that are in scope, user research needs, and a work-back plan with key milestones from concept design through detailed design to launch. It should be aligned with your cross-functional team, which should provide feedback, including PM, UI engineering, and backend engineering.

What the user wants versus what you know has always been a tricky part in software design. Many designers are itching to showcase their skills. However, technical acrobatics are rarely impressive to the user if at all. Therefore they key to the success of any software project is understanding what the user wants. Informed research is therefore crucial to determine typical user characteristics. It is especially important, when doing user research, to keep in mind that user are not a homogenous entity. Subtle things such as cultural background or economic wherewithal have tremendous influence on what users prioritize in a software system.

I would start with a discovery — initial research and planning stage before the actual design and development process begins. At this phase I would like to: 1. Understand or Define a problem 2. Define the Scope of the Project 3. Gather Requirements 4. Competitors / Competitive research 5. Define Informational Architecture 6. User research planning, Personas, UJM, CJM, etc. This process could be transformed to a continuous discovery or design sprint, agile frameworks or integrated within continuous delivery...

If you have the resources do user interviews to discover your target users needs, it will save you a lot of time and effort in the future. If you do not have resources or budget, make the most out of desk research - benchmark the competition or other similar software and their flows. Analyse their heuristics both flows and UI. Use existing UI kits such as Google material.

Starting with a working mockup to take User feedback will in the end shorten the SDLC but more importantly remove any mis-alighnment between PM and Engineering

Start with the end goal in mind, which means, look at below items Requirements- Functional & Non Functional Use-cases UX Sequence diagrams Data Model Sub domains needed across existing SW assets Dependencies Assumptions Constraints Risks & Mitigations Staffing Tools Quality considerations' Compliance & Approvals considerations Innovations Once you have considered the above, the design considerations, strategies and patterns will be dictated by the outcome of above.

If you're working on a data-heavy application, I'd suggest factoring in understanding data structure into the IA process. If you're producing data tables, filters, search ultimately the data model and quirks will also be essential to that effort. This can prevent lots of gotchas.

Restaurant menu cards have a low-key information architecture in them. Check out how information is categorised next time when you pick a menu card. Information chunking, defining navigational models and moulding them into designs play a pivotal role in your design journey. A meticulously researched solution, if presented in a disorganized manner, risks failure. Consider the importance of contextually grouping information through methods like card sorting. This strategic approach, aligned with user journeys, is the key to achieving a user-centred success. It's not just about what information you have; it's about how effectively you guide users through it that sets your product apart.

Information Architecture involves structuring the content and functionalities of your software in a manner that is both logical and intuitive, ensuring easy navigation and comprehension for users. It plays a vital role in the initial phases of development, setting a robust groundwork for an optimal user experience. Additionally, it's essential to consider the volume of information and features to effectively organize and prioritize them for seamless interaction.

Information architecture is all about organizing and structuring information in a way that makes it easy for users to navigate and find what they need within a software system. By defining clear navigation paths, categories, and labels, IA enhances the overall user experience, making it more intuitive and efficient. Site maps, wireframes, and prototypes are essential tools in visualizing and refining the IA of a software product, ultimately leading to improved usability, accessibility, and findability.

User Interface (UI) design is pivotal in software development, directly influencing user interaction and perception. A well-crafted UI enhances user experience through intuitive layouts, navigation, and engaging visuals. It not only contributes to aesthetic appeal but also impacts user satisfaction, usability, and retention. Prioritizing user needs in UI design establishes a positive connection between users and the digital product, fostering seamless interactions and overall project success.

UI design activity gives a shape to the software design from a user perspective. UI design varies based on application/software. Eg: UI design for e-commerce sites will be vastly different from a UI design for a point of sale system. Further UI design changes from region to region. Thus understanding the end users, their preferences, nuances of cultural background and finally the target space for the software matters a lot in coming up with appropriate UI design.

User interface (UI) design focuses on the visual and interactive elements of software, encompassing everything from layout and color schemes to fonts, icons, and animations. By creating visually appealing and intuitive interfaces, UI design enhances the overall user experience, making software more engaging and user-friendly. Mockups, style guides, and UI kits are essential tools in defining and maintaining consistency in the design of a software product, ensuring a cohesive and polished user interface across all screens and interactions.

To create good UI design, start by understanding your users and what they need. Conduct simple user tests and gather feedback to see what works and what doesn’t. Use consistent colors, fonts, and icons to make the software look professional and easy to navigate. Keep the layout clean and avoid cluttering the screen with too many elements. Make sure buttons and links are easy to click, and always test your design on different devices to ensure it works well everywhere.

As a visual designer at heart, this is one of my preferred steps, but I don't jump into it before establishing a clear user flow, some UX patterns, and drafting high-level wireframes. Skipping these steps will make you lose time designing high-resolution screens.

User Experience (UX) design is crucial in software development, emphasizing a holistic and positive user interaction. It integrates user behaviors and needs to create visually appealing, functional, and intuitive interfaces. A well-executed UX design minimizes friction, enhances satisfaction, and fosters brand loyalty, contributing to overall project success. Prioritizing user-centric principles ensures digital solutions that resonate with users, leading to improved usability, engagement, and positive perceptions.

User Experience is about human-machine synergy, it is understanding human intent, so imagery of the mind aligns with the machine's behavior. An UX design relies on humans being part of the modeling, not as data but a complex system that interacts with another complex system to seek positive synergy at an integrated frame of reference.

User Experience (UX) Design is dedicated to optimizing the overall experience that users have with your software, aiming to make it not only usable but also enjoyable and efficient. It is indispensable across all stages of development, with particular emphasis in the initial phases to delineate user flows and information architecture effectively. Moreover, considering the volume of user interactions and their impact on the overall experience is fundamental to crafting an exceptional user journey throughout the software's development and beyond.

User experience (UX) design is all about creating a positive and meaningful experience for users when they interact with software. It encompasses various aspects, including usability, accessibility, desirability, credibility, and user satisfaction. UX design focuses on understanding user needs and preferences, then designing software that not only meets those needs but also delights users and adds value to their lives. Techniques such as user feedback, testing, and analytics are crucial for continuously improving the UX of software, ensuring it remains effective, efficient, and enjoyable for users over time.

User experience design is the backbone of visual design — a deficient structure can make your product weak and difficult for users to navigate. It is highly recommended to test your products and validate your assumptions during user-testing sessions, whether they happen online or in-person. Make sure to push your UXD as well, and come up with multiple options to show to users. This way, you may receive some high-level user feedback.

The fundamentals never change. Any software project has three things. Input, Processing and Output. It usually also has storage. Identify at a high level all sources of input, all destinations of output and any storage requirements. This will inform the foundation of your architectural requirements.

When constructing complex enterprise software applications, it's crucial to foster a collaborative environment with Software Architects, as they possess a deep understanding of the software's underlying structure and functionality. You will gain valuable insights into the intricate workings of the existing product. This collaborative approach not only enhances one's comprehension of the product but also enables the team to push the boundaries of what's technically possible, allowing for innovation and improvement beyond the current limitations.

When building new software some of the key things to consider are reusability, scalability, ease of development, and performance. For these reasons i would start with a micro services approach, and try not to reinvent any architecture that I could leverage from well known and maintained software packages. My preference would be to use the latest .NET MVC for server side code leveraging Ocelot. Definitely first consider the services you will need and where the borders of concern lie with each service prior to building each service. I would use an Entity framework code first data layer and a separate Microsoft SQL database for each service. For the front end, user interface layer I would VUEJS and ensuring every API call uses paging.

When architecting software use a risk based approach to focus on the aspects of the design that contain the most risk, i.e. render the final solution unfit for purpose. e.g. hard real time applications need to ensure time critical functions are not impacted by other non-real time functions, so choose an architecture to match. If frequent updates and wide deployment are crucial, then choose an architecture that supports it. So, identify the risks and rank them in order of importance.

A Software architecture should be structured as below: 1. Business Context Diagram 2. Architecture Principles (which will be guiding the particular requirements) 3. Logical View (Logical Components with Integrations) 4. Technology View (Technology Stack mapped with Logical View) 5. Deployment View with Infrastructure, Network, Scalability, Availability, Logging, Monitoring etc. 6. Security and Privacy 7. Data Architecture with Backup and Restore Strategy

Supposedly your project needs to be fast choose between Java or C++ as a BE language, if you are not inclined towards speed, Python is a good language as it has a bigger library for ML or AI. Which the above mentioned language lacks or have very limited resources available.

We should be "architecture centric", but what is architecture? How do we describe the architecture? I would suggest 4+1 view model

Budget for project will play an important role along with shared pointers. One can't go with descriptive architecture in leue of budget. Also the data plays a vital role while preparing for an architecture. The architecture supporting parallel processing like asynchronous calls, independent module like microservices and multithreading will be beneficial in case of complex and huge data size.

I believe in the traditional functional model, where you use end-user interviews and observations to define your functional requirements, non-functional requirements, and constraints. Iteratively, you build scenarios, both as-is and visionary, of how end-users would interact with the system. The scenarios should be grouped and abstracted into use cases.

There are many design services available for software projects, depending on your needs, budget, and preferences. Some of the factors you may want to consider when choosing a design service are: • The scope and complexity of project • level of customization and flexibility you require • quality and experience of the designers and developers • communication and collaboration tools • integration with other software tools you use Over the past years I used to have Monday.com that offers annotations and version control, multiple project views and integration with design software I hope this information helps you choose the best design service for your software project.

First thing to do is find the sponsor expectations and set it right. Once the software need is identified, let the team aware, Time * Resources = Features * Quality. This balance is critical for the project success and user acceptance. Every step in execution to be analyzed with this equation.

Over decades of software development, we've found significant value in a holistic design that includes multiple facets commonly mentioned in software design -- UI, UX, and Graphic Design. The most important piece, however, is the "functional design" where the actual form and flow of the software product is fleshed out in full. This visual process, particularly when done by an expert, works to get that the true heart and vision of the application, and provides a stable base for both estimating and phasing the project. We've been doing this for years, reach out if you have any questions. Here's to your success!

Starting a new software project provides an opportunity to experiment with new paradigms and utilize well-known, effective UX patterns. It allows for the enhancement of product features based on user feedback and facilitates iteration until satisfactory results are achieved for users.