The Discovery phase is all about understanding the landscape—gathering insights on user needs, business goals, and identifying any constraints or opportunities that help shape the interface. I start by chatting with stakeholders to uncover their vision, then layer in user research through interviews, surveys, or even observing real-world interactions to ensure we're building something that truly resonates. This phase sets a solid foundation, preventing costly pivots later, and it's where forward-thinking comes in: we anticipate emerging trends like AI integration or accessibility advancements to make the design future-proof right from the start.

As the lead, I guide this collaboratively, making sure everyone's voice is heard without overwhelming the process. That means facilitating workshops to brainstorm ideas, analyzing competitors to spot gaps we can innovate on, and synthesizing all that data into clear personas, journey maps, or opportunity statements. It's calm and methodical—prioritizing empathy and evidence over assumptions—so the team feels supported and excited about what's ahead.

After Discovery, we move into the Define phase. Here, I distill user research, stakeholder goals, and market insights into a clear strategy. This means crafting personas, user flows, and prioritized features to shape the project’s scope. It’s a calm, collaborative step to set a focused, inclusive, and innovative direction for the interface design. By the end, we've got a shared roadmap that's intelligent, inclusive, and geared toward creating interfaces that not only meet needs but delight users in ways they didn't even know they wanted.

After the Define phase, we dive into the Design phase. This is where the fun really starts—taking those well-defined goals and turning them into tangible solutions. As a Senior UI/UX Designer, I lead brainstorming sessions, sketch quick wireframes, which ultimately lands in a high fidelity prototype that feel like the finished product. My Figma prototypes include click throughs, scrolling transitions, various component states, interactions, animation effects and much more. Communication and feedback is essential. I believe in daily standup meetings to provide quick updates and address any blockers that may arise. It’s about staying collaborative, keeping user needs front and center, and blending creativity with practicality to bring the vision to life.

Lastly we move into the Develop and Deliver phase (sometimes split into Implementation and Testing). Here, my role is to collaborate closely with developers to ensure the interface is built as envisioned, follows our design system while adapting to technical constraints. I’d review front end progress, provide feedback during development sprints, and conduct usability testing to validate the design with real users, tweaking as needed to keep things intuitive and accessible. It’s about supporting the team, bridging the gap between design and tech, and ensuring the final product works seamlessly.