The design prompt that triggers the design process is often a general idea such as ‘improving sleep quality‘ or ‘increasing recycling rates.’ Sometimes, the person or people who we are designing for serves as the design prompt, and the designer must learn more about them to find a design opportunity.

The discover phase focuses on who we are designing for, often known as the ‘(end) users’, (or the ‘co-designers’ in the case of human-centred design [HCD]), but there may be other stakeholders as well. After identifying the stakeholders, the designers will employ empathy to learn about their needs, wants and pain points.

As (qualitative & quantitative) data is being collected (from research, interviews, surveys, observations etc.), the designers consider that there is a wide range of potential challenges that could be addressed with a design solution. This type of broad, open-minded mentality is called divergent thinking.

In the define phase, the research from the discover phase undergoes synthesis and analysis, in order to find patterns in the wants, needs and pain points of the stakeholders. This step generates important and interesting insights

Convergent thinking is used to narrow down the scope of potential challenge(s) that the design team should address

By the end of this phase, the design team will have decided which specific problem(s) to address, and can clearly define it and why it matters (i.e. its effect or impact on stakeholders)

The discover and define phases allow for the validation of design decisions since they are backed by research, rather than the design team’s own preconceived notions of what they think stakeholders want. Without research, the design team is subject to their own biases, and thus what they end up designing may be less impactful or meaningful for the end-users

Now that the designers know which problem they want to focus on alleviating, they can begin coming up with ideas of how the problem could be alleviated

Rapid ideation is a method that is often used in the develop phase. It involves coming up with as many ideas as possible in a short time frame, without judging the feasibility or practicality of those ideas. Divergent thinking is used to gather this wide range of ideas

A prototype is a way of representing an idea or concept. Prototypes have progressive stages of increasing complexity, beginning with, (for example,) low-fidelity (Lo-Fi) sketches, then medium-fidelity (Mid-Fi) wireframes, and finally, a high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) clickable prototype. Designers may begin the early-stage prototyping in this phase, and continue it refine it in the deliver phase

In the deliver phase, the design team uses convergent thinking to narrow down the ideas and features they want to implement in the design

The fidelity of the prototype increases through design iterations - that is, evaluating and improving the design, often based on feedback from stakeholders

Feedback from usability testing is used to make improvements to the design. Testing also verifies whether or not the design is appropriately addressing the problem that was specified in the define phase

Once the design is finalised, it may be handed over to developers or product manufacturers. Once development is complete, the product can finally be implemented & go to market. In reality, a product/service is never finished. It will continue to be updated and iterated, according to user behaviour, or to fix issues & add new features