User experience (UX) deliverables are documents, drafts and other artifacts that serve as the tangible byproducts of an entire UX design process. They contain vital information about a project, provide a basis for design decisions and function as communication tools to convey decisions to stakeholders.
Watch this video to see how deliverables fit into the design process.
UX deliverables play an extremely vital part in a team’s design process—and they guide the whole project's trajectory. They’re particularly important because they:
UX deliverables—especially research deliverables—bring on data-driven insights that can both inform and validate design decisions. And when they’re armed with a wealth of knowledge about their users' needs and behaviors, teams can move forward to create designs that aren’t just aesthetically pleasing but functional and intuitive, too. What’s more, deliverables like wireframes and prototypes can help teams spot potential roadblocks and challenges in their design process. Team members can proactively address these and make sure that there’s a smooth transition from design to development.
Deliverables serve as a common language for designers, stakeholders and developers—and they enable team members to discuss and understand the project in effective ways. When they’ve got such a tangible reference point, all the team members can move forward from a concrete foundation. This helps clarify expectations, get visions aligned and minimize misunderstandings—and the chances of misunderstandings. It also permits more effective feedback and revisions. Stakeholders can provide specific comments on well-defined deliverables, instead of vague or general feedback.
Sketch is an excellent tool for handoff, among other purposes.
© Sketch B.V., Fair Use
Deliverables also function as a record of the design process. They allow convenient future reference and iteration. Design teams who have concrete deliverables at given stages of their design process can build upon or revisit features more easily. This documentation is also shareable with new team members or stakeholders. It makes sure everyone is on the same page—and serves as a bridge between members in project management, the development team and others. What’s more, deliverables can act as a portfolio—to showcase a team's design process, design solutions and capabilities to potential clients.
Another thing that deliverables do is help to make sure that a design remains truly user-centric. Teams can keep track of their work and refer back to the project history—and so they’re able to make sure that everyone’s on the same page, and aligned towards a common goal. This doesn’t just keep brands on point with their target users' or potential users' needs at the forefront of all design decisions—it prevents unnecessary waste and questionable results such as feature creep as well. And this focus on the user helps make for a more intuitive, user-friendly and enjoyable product.
In the user-centered design process, design teams iterate and move forward with their deliverables.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Whatever design process a design team uses, the deliverables are the crafts, currency and progress indicators of the project. They include representations of user data, design ideas and much more. All stakeholders need a unified vision of where a given project is heading. So, designers and project managers must ensure they accurately represent data and insights through all design stages.
UX deliverables generally fall into two main categories—UX research deliverables and UX design deliverables—and include several subcategories.
These are the outputs of user research activities. They encapsulate user behavior, needs and attitudes, and so inform the design process. Examples include product objectives deliverables, such as personas and storyboards.(These appear in detail in the next section.)
These are the outputs of the design process that represent the functionality and aesthetics of what will be the final product. Examples include user flows, sitemaps, wireframes and prototypes.
Watch this video to see what the elements of user experience are and what actions they require in the design process:
The scope of UX deliverables is vast, ranging from initial research findings to final design representations. Below is a list of the most common deliverables, based on different activities in the design process.
These deliverables include personas, storyboards and customer journey maps. Designers create these to understand user behavior, needs and motivations. These insights will enable them to start work on designs that are intuitive and user-friendly—designs that will really meet the needs of the target audience. What’s more, they help identify potential challenges and opportunities for improvement in the design process. Such deliverables include:
These are fictional characters which designers create to represent typical users, including these users’ motivations, skills, and frustrations. The purpose is for designers to empathize with their prospective users as much as possible. Then they can get fully behind these users’ needs and more as they progress with design ideas. Designers might create several different personas per project to portray the widest section of a target audience.
Human-computer interaction expert Professor Alan Dix explains how personas are especially helpful in design:
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
These are visual representations, like comic strips, that outline users’ actions and the context in which they perform these. Designers create these to gain insight into what users do and such vital factors as the users’ environment and scenario.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
These are diagrams representing the steps users take to meet a particular goal. These maps reveal all the different touchpoints and the users’ emotional state throughout their journey with the product. Stakeholders from across different teams collaboratively build this map and set the steps along a timeline so they can understand differences in the users’ contexts. They will also be able to notice any evolving factors such as changing motivations and arising problems. These maps help designers spot areas where a potential product or service might address problems users experience on the way to their goals.
Unless a proposed solution is a truly generative design (i.e., completely innovative as a market pioneer), a brand will have competitors. A competitive analysis is a critical step in the UX design process. Designers identify and evaluate competitors' strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to their own (proposed) product or service. When a design team does an analysis that’s thorough, they can get valuable insights into what’s going on in the market. What’s more, they can understand customer needs—and spot and define chances for what to innovate. This deliverable is something that helps set clear design goals. Plus, it establishes a good design direction—one that differentiates a product from its competitors' products.
This is the branch of deliverables that revolve around a potential solution’s features and requirements.
Here, designers generate ideas on how to move forward from the user research phase. Volume is vital so that a design team has as many ideas as possible to choose from. These many angles can include bad ideas. Teams might use sticky notes, paper cards or digital whiteboards to document the ideas during brainstorming. The deliverable might be a photograph on the wall, or a document summarizing the ideas.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
A design team ensures that they produce, edit and archive content at the right time and for the right audience. Such deliverables include marketing communication. While designers may not be directly responsible for content strategy, they should ideally work closely with personnel who are.
These areas of deliverables are where designers structure and organize content and data to present how information appears. They produce these to show design team members and stakeholders how the information will display, how to navigate, and more. These deliverables include:
Sitemaps give a really high-level view of the site's content and hierarchy. Designers create these to show navigation structure. For example, a mobile app project’s sitemap can have logical sections showing how users move from one part of a design to another.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Taxonomies categorize and label data to improve findability and usability. These deliverables are crucial items—in terms of how they work towards creating a user interface that’s both coherent and intuitive.
These are basic charts that outline which steps users must take with a design team’s proposed solution to meet a goal. They can evaluate—and swiftly—how efficient a process is to achieve user goals. They can also help identify how to execute good ideas found during brainstorming.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
A subtle difference to note is between these and task flows. Task flows tend to be more linear and focus on an individual task to be completed. As a result, they don’t usually factor in the complexity of the user, such as decision points.
These deliverables are the first user interface (UI) “goods” designers create to represent proposed solutions for their design project. They include:
These are typically the first UI-oriented deliverables in a design process. Designers create wireframes typically to show early drafts of proposed solutions or ideas. It is a skill to craft lean layouts for stakeholders and team members to see whether an idea is worth pursuing. Wireframes are therefore usually grayscale and primitive, with designers building from user flows, sitemaps and such.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
These deliverables range from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity interactive prototypes, simulating the final product for testing and validation.
Low-fidelity prototypes are cost-efficient deliverables such as cut-outs. They can help work out—early on—what might or mightn’t work in a design.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
High-fidelity prototypes are more detailed and interactive—and they allow for comprehensive usability testing and feedback. A realistic representation of the final product is what they deliver—and that’s something that lets the design team find and fix any issues before the development stage comes into play. This makes sure that the final product isn’t just visually appealing but that it’s user-friendly and efficient, too.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Designers use information design deliverables to guide their users and help them achieve their goals. Text as well as audio-visual elements can represent this information.
UX writing is a vital part of the conversation between digital products and their users. Microcopy is all the text—including headings, button labels, navigation menu items and error messages. These serve as vital cues for users to enjoy positive user experiences.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
These deliverables—like pixel-perfect mockups and design systems—represent the final visual design of the product. They also include elements such as color palettes, typography and iconography. Visual design deliverables don’t just represent the brand’s identity and aesthetic in the product, but augment its functionality and usability as well. They make sure that there’s consistency in the visual elements across different platforms and devices—and so give the overall user experience a boost.
Designers make these refined images to mimic how a real product (e.g., an app) will look. They’re purely visual representations—and they’ve got no actual code behind them.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
Design systems are invaluable items that provide a library of reusable components and guidelines. For design teams, they're especially important because they help them keep consistency going in the design process and keep things efficient, too. They serve as a single source of truth—and help make sure that all team members are on the same page, and lower the risk of design inconsistencies as well. What’s more, they streamline the design process by eliminating the need to recreate elements—a bonus that saves time and resources.
This is where designers examine their peers’ work—to make sure they’re serving their users and brand best.
These deliverables—namely usability test reports—provide insights into the product’s usability and user satisfaction. They’re especially valuable for product design or service design as they give a direct measure of how well the design meets user needs and expectations. They offer a principally qualitative assessment of the product’s performance. What’s more, they identify areas where the design excels and where it falls short. This feedback is vital—and designers can refine the design, make necessary adjustments and make sure the final product is something that’s both functional and enjoyable for the user.
Of the many ways they can evaluate a design, designers summarize their findings in a usability report. Depending on the roles of the team members who read it, designers will include more or less technical detail. Nevertheless, a well-structured usability report typically contains a background summary, methodology, test results, and findings and recommendations.
© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0
After a product release, the brand can present data collected from website traffic, user interactions, and other measurable events to help identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Designers can use the data from an analytics report to find helpful insights to improve usability. For example, they might find an app’s users aren’t completing a call to action (CTA). They might use this insight and investigate further—perhaps through a usability test—to determine that users don’t notice that CTA available. Designers need to structure these reports so likely explanations and recommendations complement the facts they expose and interpret.
This analytics report reveals that engaged sessions per user for a certain category of female (users) who triggered an event were 45% higher than the average.
© Google, Fair use
The creation and use of UX deliverables can vary greatly depending on the design style that a team adopts. In a Waterfall process, team members finish the design phase before they hand over their work to the developers to work on the project. There, UX deliverables often include detailed documentation—and could include in-depth user research reports, extensive wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes.
On the other hand, in an Agile design process, stages often overlap—and involve iteration. There, UX deliverables tend to be leaner and more flexible. This could include quick user personas, low-fidelity sketches, and interactive prototypes that team members can quickly test and iterate upon.
Laura Klein, UX designer and author of Build Better Products and UX Design for Lean Startups, explains the iterative nature of Agile teams.
It takes a series of collaborative activities among the UX team and stakeholders to make the best deliverables. A simplified process is to:
Designers start by identifying the needs of the project and the stakeholders. They determine what information they need to inform their design decisions, and what their stakeholders need to understand and approve those decisions.
Based on these needs, designers choose the most appropriate deliverables. Every project is unique—and not all deliverables are necessary for every project. For example, designers in a design thinking process might choose deliverables like empathy maps, user personas and prototypes. These tools can help them empathize with their users, ideate solutions and test their assumptions. However, for some projects, the team might favor a more data-driven approach, and they might prefer other deliverables to guide their design decisions. For example, they might choose user flow diagrams, data visualizations or A/B test results.
Designers use their UX skills and tools to create the deliverables. They could conduct user research, create wireframes or craft prototypes, for example. In the case of user research, they have a variety of quantitative research and qualitative research methods to choose from. For example, they can use interviews and usability testing as qualitative methods, and A/B tests and surveys as quantitative methods.
For wireframing, they can use pencil sketches or digital tools like Sketch, Figma, or Adobe XD to create a visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of their product. When they craft prototypes, they can choose low-fidelity prototypes for initial testing or high-fidelity prototypes for more detailed and interactive testing later.
Designers present the deliverables to stakeholders and discuss their findings and decisions. It’s an opportunity for feedback and iteration. Design itself is communication, so it’s important to make deliverables that clearly show findings or intentions. Stakeholders can give their insights and perspectives. The team can then work these into the next iteration of the deliverables. This iterative process is something that makes sure that the final product is ultimately not just user-centric but that it aligns with the business objectives and stakeholder expectations, too.
Once all parties agree on the design decisions, it’s time to hand over the deliverables. This is a pivotal time. Design team members therefore must be clear on who is responsible for continuing with which deliverable and what the time frame is for the next stage. Sprints mark this in an Agile process.
Here, Hype4 co-founder Szymon Adamiak discusses the importance of communication and handovers as part of a good design process.
Remember, the role that user testing plays in revising and refining UX deliverables is a truly vital one. It gives direct feedback on the design from the end-users—and it lets designers spot and address issues well. For instance, usability testing can reveal navigation issues in a wireframe. Meanwhile, A/B testing can help optimize a prototype’s interface. And when they incorporate user testing into the design process, designers can make sure that their deliverables aren’t just user-centric but user-validated, too.
It’s impossible to overstate how important testing is—especially when it comes to deliverables. UX deliverables are the tangible proof of the design process. They showcase the thought, effort and expertise that go into creating a user-centric design. They serve as a roadmap—and so guide the design team towards the final product. Meanwhile, they make sure that the team keeps user needs and business objectives top of mind. Without thorough testing and iterative refining, these deliverables will almost certainly not accurately reflect user needs or project goals. They’ll represent wasted resources from a team with squandered talent.
CEO of Experience Dynamics, Frank Spillers explains why usability testing is so important.
Design teams have to take care not to design the wrong thing. Likewise, they’ve also got to pay close attention to the effectiveness and accuracy of the UX deliverables they work on. Many things can go wrong if a team has overlooked certain points or a product manager has misinterpreted the user research data. For example, if a team doesn’t accurately interpret user feedback, they might end up designing an unwanted feature—one that actually hinders the product functionality. Similarly, if the product manager doesn’t clearly communicate business objectives, the design team might focus on the wrong aspects of the product. So, it’s essential for teams to make sure that clear communication and accurate interpretation of data are realities whenever they’re working with UX deliverables.
Another risk is that clients can sometimes assume that a mockup means a design is close to its release date. Designers can prevent this if they clearly state what such deliverables indicate regarding the stage of the design process.
Among other potential pitfalls is that teams often create prototypes in high-fidelity in later stages of design. When prototypes are in high-fidelity, design teams already invest a lot of time and effort and may be unwilling to make changes or accept feedback. Changes will become more expensive to implement in any case.
It’s also vital to keep storytelling in sight throughout the process. Storytelling is a particularly powerful driving force in UX deliverables. It really empowers designers to visualize and communicate the user’s journey through the product. This makes sure of a human-centered, user-centric design effort.
Finally, the size of the UX team will be a deciding factor in who does what. For example, larger teams may have specialist information architects. In smaller teams, one or two designers might need to assume many roles, including the information architect, interaction designer, UX writer and visual designer.
Overall, it takes careful planning, research and effective communication to produce the best deliverables. Prominent brands—such as Airbnb and Google—invest in and produce fine deliverables to further their products. No matter how large or small an organization or client is, UX design teams have got to remember to always align deliverables with business goals and user needs—at every stage. It’s also important for them to leverage a variety of deliverables—so they make sure they create products that truly resonate with their users, time and time again.
Take our course Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide.
Watch our Masterclass Users: Introducing Persona Stories for insights into this essential design deliverable.
Consult NNG’s Which UX Deliverables Are Most Commonly Created and Shared? for extensive additional considerations.
Read The 10 UX Deliverables Top Designers Use by Miklos Philips for further in-depth points.
See A Complete List of UX Deliverables by Nick Babich for more insights.
Find a list of common deliverables for designers, here: 14 UX Deliverables: What will I be making as a UX designer?
A UX specification document—also known as a UX spec—is a detailed outline that designers and developers use to understand the user experience of a product or service. It includes information on layout, interactions, visual design and user flow. It makes sure of consistency and clarity in the design process and a high level of user-centered design in design projects and final products.
The creation of a UX specification document involves several steps. Designers need to define user needs, map out user journeys and detail the user interface elements. This document is something that becomes a crucial reference for both the design and development teams. It helps them make really sure that they think about every aspect of the user experience and implement it consistently.
For instance, in an e-commerce app or website, a UX spec might detail how users navigate from the homepage to completing a purchase. It would include information about button styles, interaction patterns like swiping or scrolling—and the layout of product pages.
Actionable insights for creating an effective UX specification document include:
Start with user needs: Understand and document the key needs of target users.
Detail user journeys: Map out how users will navigate through a product.
Specify interaction design: Clearly define how users will interact with each element.
Include visual design elements: Provide details on colors, typography, and iconography.
Iterate and collaborate: Continuously refine the document in collaboration with the design team.
Technology is significantly impacting how design teams create UX deliverables in several ways:
Enhanced collaboration: Tools like Figma and InVision make it easy for design team members, development team members and other stakeholders to collaborate in real time. It’s something that permits seamless design iterations and feedback.
Rapid prototyping: Advanced software lets designers create high-fidelity prototypes, and quickly—ones that are interactive and close to the final product. This reduces the time and resources spent on revisions.
Accessibility and inclusivity: Automated tools help make sure that designs meet accessibility standards—something that makes it easier for a wider audience to use planned digital products such as websites or apps.
Data-driven design: Technologies like AI and analytics tools shed insights into user behavior—which enables data-driven decision-making in the design process.
Virtual and augmented reality: VR and AR technologies are creating new dimensions in UX design—and they permit the creation of immersive experiences and testing in simulated environments.
Automated testing: Tools that automate usability testing can quickly collect user feedback. This benefit in the testing process is something that helps team members to improve UX deliverables faster.
Cloud storage and access: Cloud-based platforms make sure that deliverables are easily accessible and stored securely. From user personas and test results to many other elements of UX research, they’re cost-effective ways to facilitate remote work and version control.
Overall, technology is making the creation of UX deliverables more efficient, collaborative, and user-focused. What’s more, technology, particularly AI (artificial intelligence) is helping design teams collaborate more effectively, as Product designer Ioana Teleanu explains in this video:
Overall, advances in technology are leading to better products and user experiences. These include many aspects of visual design, interactive design and ways to find how a user interacts with a product and so influence design decisions.
To make really effective UX deliverables, designers stick to best practices that make sure they’re useful, clear and actionable. Here are key practices to follow:
Understand the audience: Tailor deliverables to the needs and understanding of the stakeholders. What’s valuable for a developer might differ from what a marketer requires. Understand users in the sense that you know what team members in your product design team need.
Focus on clarity: Make sure that deliverables are clear and concise. Don’t overload them with unnecessary details that can hide key insights.
Incorporate user feedback: Continuously integrate user feedback into the deliverables. This makes sure that the designs remain user-centered around a high level of UX research.
Make them accessible and collaborative: Use tools that allow for easy sharing and collaboration—which encourages feedback and iterative improvements to information architecture, other aspects of visual design, and more.
Align with business goals: Get UX deliverables to line up with the broader business objectives. They should address user needs while they contribute to the overall business strategy. If a brand’s business goals are focused well, they’ll account for great customer satisfaction, a solid competitive advantage and numerous other aspects of a winning product design.
Iterate based on testing: Use usability testing results to refine and improve the deliverables. An iterative approach is key to effective UX design and to delight real users who can achieve their goals with well-designed digital products.
Document decisions and changes: Keep a clear record of design decisions and changes—it’ll help keep the clarity and rationale throughout the design process.
Visuals over text: Wherever it’s possible, use visuals to get ideas across. Diagrams, sketches and wireframes are often more effective than text-heavy documents—which can be time-consuming pain points.
Stay up-to-date with UX Trends: Keep abreast of the latest UX trends and tools—that’s something that can bring new perspectives and methods for creating effective deliverables.
User-Centricity: UX professionals should always prioritize the user’s experience and needs in every deliverable they create. User testing will confirm how user-centric a deliverable is, so stay ahead of the game in real time.
See our piece 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process for helpful insights into making the best UX deliverables.
It’s a crucial role that they play. They act as a bridge that connects various aspects of product development—and they’re important since they:
Facilitate communication: UX deliverables provide a common language for different team members, so collaboration among team members—such as developers, marketers and product managers—becomes easier in problem solving and more. Deliverables help to clearly convey design ideas and user experience strategies to product teams, team leaders, market research personnel, and others involved.
Align goals: Deliverables make sure that all team members are on the same page with the user’s needs and the product’s objectives. That alignment’s critical for the cohesive development of products or services in a UX design process towards their targeted audiences.
Guide development: Deliverables like wireframes, prototypes and user flows offer tangible guides for developers. They make sure that the final product stands in line with the envisioned design—be it for a brand-new user interface or an existing product.
Inform decision-making: Insights from user personas and usability reports help design teams and others who are involved in product development processes make informed decisions across various departments. And these can include items like marketing strategies and development priorities.
Enhance collaboration: As they provide clear and visual representations of the product, UX deliverables make collaboration among product designers and other team members better. This collaborative team mindset is something that allows for efficient and effective product development—and it’s the backbone of the Agile approach.
Permit iterative improvement: High-quality deliverables let teams iteratively improve the product; that’s because they provide a long-term basis for feedback and user testing. And that’s crucial for agile development processes.
Overall, UX deliverables are instrumental in ensuring that cross-functional teams work synergistically in real time towards creating a product that is not only technically sound but also provides a great user experience.
Watch our masterclass Design for Agile: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them by Laura Klein for insights into dynamics of cross-functional teams and more.
There are several key ones:
Usability Metrics:
Task Success Rate: Measures whether users can complete specified tasks successfully.
Error Rate: Counts the number of errors made by users while interacting with the product.
Time on Task: Tracks how long it takes for users to complete a task.
User Satisfaction Metrics:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Assesses user likelihood to recommend the product.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Gauges user satisfaction with the product or a specific feature.
User Experience Questionnaires: Collect qualitative feedback on the user’s experience.
Engagement Metrics:
Daily/Monthly Active Users (DAU/MAU): Measures user engagement over time.
Session Duration: Monitors the length of user interactions with the product.
Conversion Metrics:
Conversion Rate: Tracks the percentage of users completing a desired action.
Drop-off Rate: Identifies at what point users are leaving or abandoning tasks.
Retention Metrics:
Churn Rate: Measures the rate at which users stop using the product.
Retention Rate: Tracks how many users continue to use the product over time.
Business Impact Metrics:
Return on Investment (ROI): Assesses the financial return on UX initiatives.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Estimates the total value a customer brings during their relationship with the product.
Each metric gives insights into different aspects of user experience and product performance—and helps professionals make data-driven decisions to improve their UX deliverables.
See our piece The ROI of UX – Some Basic Metrics for further information on metrics regarding deliverables and more.
Emerging trends in UX deliverables reflect the evolving landscape of technology, user expectations, and design methodologies. Here are some of the key trends:
User-centered data visualization: As data gets more and more integral to decision-making, UX professionals are focusing on making user-friendly data visualizations—which involves making complex data easily understandable and actionable for users.
AI and machine learning integration: Incorporating AI and machine learning algorithms into UX design is on the rise.
Accessibility and inclusive design: This involves sticking to WCAG guidelines and designing for a diverse range of users.
Voice user interface (VUI): Designing for voice interactions is becoming increasingly important. This involves understanding natural language processing and conversational UI design.
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Microinteractions: Focus on microinteractions, small design elements that enhance the user experience, is increasing.
Motion design and animation: Using subtle animations and motion design can make interfaces more intuitive and delightful.
Ethical design and privacy: With growing concerns about privacy and data security, UX designers are now more involved in creating transparent and ethical designs that protect user data.
Collaborative and remote design tools: Tools such as Figma and InVision are popular for their collaborative features.
Design systems and style guides: Creating comprehensive design systems and style guides helps maintain consistency and efficiency in UX design across large teams and multiple projects.
Here are some popular good books about UX deliverables:
Steve Krug's book gives practical web usability advice focused on eliminating unnecessary thinking for users. Its simple principles like avoiding jargon help designers improve sites.
Tidwell, J. (2010). Designing interfaces: Patterns for effective interaction design. O'Reilly Media.
Jenifer Tidwell catalogs proven interface design solutions as patterns. This provides UI designers a toolbox of best practices to draw from.
This book by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden outlines the Lean UX methodology which focuses on rapid experimentation and iterative design to quickly learn about users. It has influenced many designers to focus on creating testable prototypes early and learning from real user feedback.
Jesse James Garrett outlines a framework for breaking down and improving web site UX into five planes of user experience. This provides an organized process for developing sites.
Kim Goodwin's book provides practical guidance on user research, information architecture, interaction design and visual design. It advocates designing holistically for user goals.
Common pitfalls that UX designers need to avoid when they create UX deliverables include:
Lack of clarity: Don’t create deliverables that are ambiguous or too complex. Make sure that they’re straightforward and easy to understand for all stakeholders.
Overloading with information: While thoroughness is important, don’t overload deliverables with excessive details. It can obscure key insights about real users, pain points, and more. Focus on the most relevant information.
Ignoring the audience: Design deliverables with the audience in mind. What's useful for a developer might differ from what a marketer needs. Keep a high level of empathy in mind.
Neglecting user feedback: It’s a critical mistake to disregard user feedback whenever you or other team members are creating UX deliverables. Bring user insights in to make the deliverables more user-centered.
Failing to align with business goals: Make sure that UX deliverables are in line with the broader business goals and objectives. They shouldn’t just address user needs but contribute to achieving business outcomes, too.
Not iterating based on testing: UX design is an iterative process—and to not update deliverables based on usability testing results is something that can lead to designs that do not effectively solve user problems.
Poor documentation: Inadequate documentation can make it hard for team members to understand the rationale behind design decisions. Comprehensive documentation is essential for teams to meet user needs and business goals and objectives.
To steer clear of these pitfalls, focus on creating clear, concise and relevant deliverables that are in line both with user needs and with business goals. Regularly update them based on user feedback and testing results.
For extensive insights into and best practices of UX research, take our course:
Deliverables make for a more comprehensive understanding of the user experience. This is something that makes user testing more effective and insightful—and here’s a breakdown of which deliverables feature where:
Planning tests: Deliverables like user personas and user journeys let testers understand the target users' needs, preferences and behavior patterns. This understanding guides teams to create testing scenarios that are relevanat for potential users.
Conducting tests: Prototypes, wireframes and user flows are critical during testing. They let real users interact with a product's design and functionality. This makes for a hands-on experience of the user interface and user flow.
Analyzing test results: Usability reports and user feedback are integral in analyzing the results of user tests. They provide insights into user behavior, preferences and areas of difficulty. These are vital for refining the design.
Iterative improvement: Based on the analysis, designers can make informed decisions to iterate and improve the product. This iterative process—which UX deliverables guide—makes sure that the final product runs closely in line with user needs and expectations.
Overall, UX deliverables aren’t just documentation. They’re active elements in the user testing process. What’s more, they really guide the design towards a user-centered product where design team members minimize pain points for real users.
The most common types of UX deliverables are:
User Personas: Fictional characters which designers create to represent different target user types.
Wireframes: Schematic blueprints, usually missing stylistic elements, that represent the skeletal framework of digital products.
Prototypes: Interactive demos of a website or app. They can range from low-fidelity sketches to high-fidelity, fully functional demos.
User Journeys: Visual or textual representations of the user’s interactions and user behavior with a product. They show the sequence of steps the user takes to accomplish a goal.
User Flows: Diagrams that display the complete path a user takes when using a product in real life.
Site Maps: Diagrams that illustrate the structure and hierarchy of a website.
Usability Reports: Documents containing findings from usability tests.
Each deliverable has a specific purpose. For example, user personas help team members to understand the target audience of their interactive design. Meanwhile, wireframes give a clear outline of a website or app’s layout and functionality. Prototypes allow for early testing and feedback that designers can apply to potential customers and—ultimately—to real users. User journeys and user flows visualize the user’s experience and interactions. Site maps organize and clarify content structure—while usability reports highlight areas for improvement.
When designers create these deliverables, they should focus on clarity and effectiveness. It's crucial to make sure that these documents get the intended design and user experience across clearly to stakeholders. Consider taking our User Experience: The Beginner’s Guide course for a firm foundation on deliverables and much more.
UX deliverables specifically cater to user experience aspects but do not differ from other design deliverables in many ways. Designers must understand user needs, behaviors, and the overall journey within a UX context, and namely they:
Focus on making deliverables that are specific to UX design such as user flows, sitemaps, information architecture (IA) and microcopy.
Can include such deliverables for digital products when refining products post-release, something that physical product designers cannot do.
Also can focus on the area of service design. UX designers examine the holistic end-to-end experience, where other design disciplines are far more specialized or narrow.
Interactive Prototypes: UX designers frequently use interactive prototypes to test and refine user interactions. This is less common in other design and development areas. For creating products or services, especially high-quality digital products for a target audience, team members make prototypes to test how potential users might experience versions of a final product.
Here are some highly cited pieces of research on UX deliverables:
Smiley, K., Patel, P., & Harding, J. (2016). From Ideas to Implementations: Closing the Gaps between Technical Experts and Software Solutions. In 2016 IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Continuous Software Evolution and Delivery (CSED). IEEE.
This publication by Karen Smiley, Pankesh Patel and Jeff Harding—presented at the 2016 IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Continuous Software Evolution and Delivery (CSED)—addresses the critical challenge of bridging the gaps between technical experts and the development of software solutions. The authors discuss the importance of collaboration between technical experts and software developers—emphasizing the need for a mutual understanding and communication to ensure that the software solutions developed aren’t just technically sound but align with the specific requirements and expectations of the technical domain, too.
Shiratuddin, N, Zaibon, S.B. (2011). Designing user experience for mobile game-based learning. In 2011 International Conference on User Science and Engineering (i-USEr). IEEE.
This study, presented at the 2011 International Conference on User Science and Engineering (i-USEr), focuses on the development of mobile game-based learning (mGBL) applications. It addresses the need for specialized methodologies in creating educational games for mobile environments.
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Here’s the entire UX literature on UX Deliverables by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:
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