In this step, you have to identify the various needs your design solution will fulfill.
Requirements: Paper and Pen, Markers, Post-its, Whiteboard
- Write down the problem statement: As a first step in any design process, identify the problem which your solution will address. Write down the problem statement.
- List down all the needs this solution can fulfill: Write down all the needs that current available solutions can and can’t address.
- Identify the gaps in the current solution: Step above will identify the gaps. Accordingly you will prioritize the needs which your solution will eventually address.
For Example: While designing www.accessibleuxd.com, I used the steps above and identified the following needs:
1. Section 508 Web Accessibility guidelines are too complex for a designer to understand and incorporate in the design at an initial stage.
2. The current industry design methodology ignores web accessibility for their web based products at initial stages. Traditional industry approach is to design a web product and then conduct the usability testing. Web accessibility is a part of this usability testing. If web accessibility is not a core requirement then the end products will fail to address the accessibility problem.