DX "Artifacts" Explained

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Donec sed odio dui. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.

Personas

A persona is a representation of a user, typically based off user research and incorporating user goals, needs, and interests. Cooper categorizes personas into three types. Each has its own advantages and shortcomings. Marketing personas focus on demographic information, buying motivations and concerns, shopping or buying preferences, marketing message, media habits and such. Proto—personas are used when there is no money or time to create true research—based personas – they are based on secondary research and the team’s educated guess of who they should be designing for. Design personas focus on user goals, current behavior, and pain points as opposed to their buying or media preferences and behaviors. They are based on field research and real people.

• They reflect patterns observed in research
• They focus on the current state, not the future
• Are realistic, not idealized
• Describe a challenging (but not impossible) design target
• Help you understand users’
  • Context
  • Behaviors
  • Attitudes
  • Needs
  • Challenges/pain points
  • Goals and motivations

OOBE & User Flows

Users engage with organizations across various channels, including the web, email, mobile devices, kiosks, online chat, and by visiting physical locations (such as storefronts or service centers). An organization, like ours, with a multichannel ecosystem should ensure independent channel interactions coordinate to create one cohesive, consistent customer experience.

• Consistency
  • Familiarity and confidence
  • Learnability
  • Efficiency
  • Trust
• Seamlessness
• Optimization
• Orchestration
• Collaboration

Content Outline

Every area, page or task should have a goal. This outline will help you discover the purpose, determine what is valuable and prioritize it. Think of it like a "Table of Contents" for your copy. The first item is your most important piece of content and whatever is at the bottom may be cut if the page becomes overwhelming.

• How much you need to share with developers?
• How much would they find interesting?
• If a developer only sees one thing, what would that be? Remember, nothing is equal.
• If a developer glanced down the outline, will they get a good idea of what your tool will do for them?
• Include any known links you want to feature

Sitemaps

Designing a new space can be a daunting process, only made more complicated by the volume of information that sometimes needs to be organized and incorporated. A sitemap is a centralized planning tool that can help organize and clarify the content that needs to be on your site, as well as help you eliminate unnecessary pages. 

• Provides scope of your project 
• Indicates all security requirements
• Shows how your pages connect with external sites

Wireframes

Before designs are started, our team will create wireframes based on the content outline/sitemap. The aim of a wireframe is to provide a visual understanding of a page early in a project to get approval before the creative phase gets under way. 

• Validates that the content outline is delivering on the “goal” of the page
• Provides guidance for character count and visual support (images/graphics)
• Ensures nothing is missing (that might be missed in copy form)

Copy

Each tool team is expected to provide a refined draft of their copy in GC (not in a word doc) that has been validated by all stakeholders. Our editorial team will:

• Check for TM&B
• Ensure your copy is talking to the right level of developer for your tool
• Ensure your copy is clear and easy to understand
• Validate that your copy is following the goal and outline

Design "Comps"

Not all pages will be provided in a visual “comp”. Our team will determine which pages require this step. Note:

• Designs are for visual reference and will not have the latest copy
• Comps will only be updated if the design of a page changes extensively (and not for copy changes)

Web Page Previews

When you receive preview links to your web page, they will have a lot of pink. Don’t worry.

• Design & copy are locked prior to web page creation. Any changes may affect your launch date
• Check for layout, content and links (there will be minimal differences between these pages and live)
• Your custom tool menu/footer won’t be viewable until launch
• Check documentation feed content for accuracy