Question

What are the reasons to make more than one iteration of the design–test–redesign part of the UX life-cycle? Explain with an example.

Answer 1

The iterative design process is a simple concept. Once, through user research, you have identified a user need and have generated ideas to meet that need, you develop a prototype. Then you test the prototype to see whether it meets the need in the best possible way. Then you take what you learned from testing and amend the design. Following that, you create a new prototype and begin the process all over again until you are satisfied that you’ve reached the best possible product for release to the market.

Iterative design can be used at any phase of the design process, including when the product has already been launched in the market and you are looking to create improvements in that product. However, it’s worth noting that the earlier in a product’s lifecycle that you implement iterative design, the more cost-effective the approach will be. It’s because it is almost always cheaper and easier to create a prototype to test than it is to develop a system or product and then amend that based on user feedback. There are a huge number of tools on the market that allow you to create interactive prototypes for web and software applications and most of these are low cost to adopt.

The best example of iterative design on the web is the use of Wikis. Wikipedia, for example, contains user generated content. Anyone is free to come along and improve on that content at any time. It’s easy for a reviewer (or editor) to visit that improvement and make a decision as to whether the change is an improvement or whether it takes something away instead. Over time, the theory is that Wikipedia’s content should evolve to make it the most valuable encyclopedia online.