If you’ve ever wondered why some digital products feel so intuitive while others leave you endlessly tapping around in frustration, the answer lies in UX design. Good UX design isn’t an accident—it’s a carefully crafted process that puts the user front and center. At GA, we follow a tried-and-true five-step approach to UX design that keeps every user’s needs, frustrations, and expectations in mind.
The beauty of the UX design process is that it’s flexible, repeatable, and entirely focused on real-world solutions. It’s not about throwing guesses at a wall to see what sticks—it’s about understanding who you’re designing for and crafting something that genuinely improves their experience. Whether you’re building an app, a website, or even a physical product, this five-step method brings clarity and purpose to each stage of development.
In this guide, we’ll walk through each of the five steps:
- Research and empathize
- Define the problem
- Generate ideas
- Make a prototype
- Test and learn
Keep reading below to learn how each phase plays a crucial role in crafting experiences that feel intuitive and user-friendly. This isn’t just theory—it’s a practical framework you can use to build something people will love and actually want to use.
And if you’re ready to dive deeper, check out a free class or workshop to get foundational, hands-on experience through each of these five steps, live with an industry expert. Consider it your chance to test the waters of UX design and get some firsthand insights into what makes this process so powerful.
Let’s jump into the process and explore how each step helps you put the “user” in user experience.
Step 1: Research and empathize
You can’t solve a problem without understanding who you’re solving it for. That’s why the UX process starts with empathy—getting into the mind (and sometimes the shoes—literally) of your users. This step is all about gathering insights through interviews, surveys, and observing user behavior.
Think of this as your detective phase. You’re not jumping to conclusions but rather listening, watching, and learning. The goal is to gain a deep, first-hand understanding of the challenges and expectations your users face. This phase helps build a foundation of empathy, so you’re creating solutions that actually fit users’ real needs—not what you assume they want.
Step 2: Define the problem
After gathering insights, you’re ready to move on to defining the problem. But here’s the catch: your problem statement isn’t about you. It’s not about your business goals or hitting KPIs—it’s about what your users actually need.
At this stage, you’ll organize your findings from the research phase and start identifying patterns. Let’s say you’re designing a productivity app. Maybe your research showed that users are frustrated by a lack of customizable tools that adapt to different workflows. Your problem statement might be, “Busy professionals need a flexible tool to manage varied workflows efficiently.”
By clearly defining the problem from a user perspective, you create a guiding light for the entire design process. Remember, solving the right problem is half the battle.
Step 3: Generate ideas
With your problem defined, it’s time to get creative. This is where ideation comes in. Don’t just think outside the box—throw the box out the window. The ideation stage encourages you and your team to brainstorm as many ideas as possible without judgment.
A few tips for making this phase productive:
- Quantity over quality: Don’t worry about filtering out the “bad” ideas yet. Sometimes the most out-there ideas inspire the most practical solutions.
- Use different techniques: From mind mapping to “How Might We” questions, experimenting with different ideation methods can spark unique ideas.
- Encourage diversity of thought: Invite team members from different departments or backgrounds. Different perspectives lead to richer ideas.
By the end of this phase, you’ll have a pool of potential solutions. You’ll narrow them down later, but for now, the goal is to think big.
Step 4: Make a prototype
With a few top ideas from your ideation sessions, it’s time to create prototypes. A prototype doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be as simple as a hand-drawn sketch, a clickable digital mockup, or even a storyboard that maps out the user journey. Prototyping allows you to bring your ideas to life quickly so you can test them before committing to the final product.
Think of prototypes as draft versions. They let you explore how users might interact with a solution and identify potential pain points early on. Prototyping also saves you time and resources in the long run because you can catch design flaws before they become costly issues in development.
Step 5: Test and learn
Testing isn’t the last step—it’s a loop back to the beginning. During this phase, you put your prototypes in front of real users to see how they respond. The goal isn’t to prove your design is flawless—it’s to find out what you missed and use that feedback to improve. Remember: it’s not about you, it’s about the user.
You’ll observe how users interact with the prototype, noting any areas where they seem confused or frustrated. Use these insights to refine the prototype, making changes to address any issues before moving forward.
And don’t be afraid to lather-rinse-repeat. Testing is iterative. You might find that some problems you solved have created new ones or that additional tweaks are needed. Keep going until you have a solution that genuinely meets your users’ needs.
Why are these steps essential?
Design thinking’s five steps aren’t just theoretical—they’re proven to help teams address user needs in creative and efficient ways. By empathizing with users, defining clear problems, generating diverse ideas, building prototypes, and rigorously testing them, UX designers can produce products that are not only effective but also enjoyable to use.
So… now what?
Have we sparked your interest? Get started with the basics in our free two-hour class, Beginner’s Guide to UX Design, and get hands-on practice taking a real-world user problem through each of these five steps—live with an industry pro. It’s a practical way to start understanding how research, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, and testing all come together in real-world design challenges.
This class is a perfect way to get a feel for the UX process—and it’s an excellent place to see if UX design might be a good fit for your career goals.