Design Process - phase 1

This phase is where the goals, messages, and audience for the project are explored and decided. These are likely the most important questions that will be addressed throughout the project and have the most impact. These answers cannot be described too well.

Many questions are asked during this stage.

... audience description, audience capabilities, messages intended for audience, feature set, content and content framework ( ideally all content will be provided before continuing onward to the next stage ), content - new or repurposed, visual identity and/or CID(where applicable, and usually preceeded by brand strategy document and creative brief), the strategy ...

There is an actual list of questions. Please add to it.

We will / or may also:

interview potential users to: understand their expectations and priorities, develop a content flow chart (this is not the information architecture), create user profiles and user scenarios, conduct competitive and market research, implement the development schedule and revise if necessary, and create a project team.

In the end we produce a project requirements document which guides the development of the product through the next phases. The client must agree to this plan before we continue. ( if you haven't guessed yet - this document contains everything we have written down to date)

We have decided what the product should be!

This team might be composed as follows: (courtesy of val casey)

producer - coordinator, scheduling, budget, relationships, babysitter

information designer - site structure, information organization (hierarchies), interaction design

visual designer - sensorial design, concept visualization, interaction design

creative director - carries the vision of the site (meta not details), supports designer with clients

buildmaster/scriptors - interface implementors

engineers - database architects, internal technical vision and support