User Experience Design Process: A Fractal Model
The User Experience Design process is complex and organic, and — like so many problems UX professionals encounter — challenging to express in simple terms.
Most visual models of the UX process push boxes and arrows to the limit in a struggle to capture the iterative and collaborative nature of product design progression. The video below, which is my latest UX process visualization, breaks free from Euclidean convention in leveraging Fractal geometry — in a storytelling capacity — to describe the UX process at scale.
Watch first — then read on for more applications, content and inspiration behind the model.
The Fractal Model in real life
While the Fractal Model succeeds in illustrating a general progression of product design, the neatly separated shapes sacrifice a certain capacity to show how steps often overlap or occur out of order. For example, it’s possible and acceptable to start sketching solutions (technically low-fidelity design work) during user research at the bottom of the pyramid.
Also note, the video does not comprehensively showcase all tools and methods involved in project processes … many important tools used by designers do not make specific appearances, like storyboarding or five-whys, for example. For a more complete repository of design thinking tools and methods, check out IDEO’s Design Kit.
Using the Fractal Model to educate non-designer stakeholders on process
If executives, customers, or cross-departmental partners are only exposed to finished design work product above the ‘waterline,’ the realization of time and resource investment in the process section can blindside them like the iceberg and the Titanic.
Any enterprise design practice struggling for buy-in on the ROI of UX could benefit from providing process visibility to an executive champion at strategic checkpoints. Sketching the pyramid for these partners can quickly communicate the visibility dynamic at play.
Mapping design department staffing and resourcing
As an enterprise design practice grows and differentiates, the Fractal Model can be used to map the department’s current resources and eventually frame a hiring model. For example, design practices can staff vertically by hiring full-stack or generalist designers, who handle a product or feature through parts of the pyramid from research to visual design:
Alternatively, departments can staff horizontally with specialists to tap into deep expertise across areas like user research, rapid prototyping, or advanced UI design and design systems.
Design organizations may also leverage a mixed model, with horizontal research expertise at the bottom of the pyramid, or UI-only specialists staffing toward the top.
Inspiration behind the Fractal Model
In conceiving this model, I sketched through many other shapes, including circles, hexagons, and even literal iceberg illustrations. Ultimately — the model benefits from the strength, simplicity and stability inherent in a triangle, plus the mystique and mythology of the pyramid.
I first learned about fractals when reading Michael Chrichton’s Jurassic Park as a young adult, and was fascinated by the idea of alternative geometries. Fractals are a recent mathematics field, developed in the 1970’s and described as “a process of successive approximation: a problem-solving method where a succession of approximations, each building on the one preceding, is used to achieve a desired degree of accuracy.” UX Process could be described by the same description, almost word-for-word.
The Sierpinski Triangle is considered a mathematically “attractive fixed set,” but it’s attractive in the aesthetic sense, too. Fractals are deeply compelling as a framework for UX in the way they capsule the medium of time — iterations, keyframes, successive slices — as an aspect of the geometry itself. And as we know, time is a critical element to be managed in the UX process.
Pyramidia and the Eye of Providence
As designers, the satisfaction of witnessing your work product succeed from concept to release can only be described as sacred. The UX fractal hints at this sentiment with the capstone/release section of the diagram.
In the physical world, a pyramidion is the granite capstone of a pyramid or obelisk, consecrated by the ancient Egyptians and thought to be covered in gold leaf. According to Wikipedia, very few pyramidia have survived into modern times, and I like how this rarity hints that good product design is not often realized.
Good product design yields marketplace success, so the Eye of Providencerelates appropriately as inspiration here as well. You may recognize this symbol as the pyramidion shown on the reverse of a United States $1 bill. The Eye of Providence represents the eye of God watching over humanity, and is associated with light and glory.
Maslow’s Hierarchy
Like pyramidia and the Eye of Providence, Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs places the ultimate at the top: self-actualization, built on successive layers of physical and psychological needs. This classic model is basic, and succinct psychological theory. I found it to be great related inspiration, since the best UX professionals are also students of behavioral psychology and the human condition.
The Triforce
I’ve been a gamer all of my life and a loyal fan to the Legend of Zelda title series, and often compared the cross-functional triad of design, product and engineering to the power of the Triforce. In the Zelda universe, the Triforce is a divine artifact forged by the three goddesses who created Hyrule. The three sections of the Triforce separate into the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Wisdom, and the Triforce of Courage. When united, the wielder of the Triforce can use it to make and fulfill as as many wishes as they want.
In product design — when a colocated team of a product, design and engineering lead come together with trust, mutual respect, talent and intent — the experience of being part of that team, and their work result and productivity, can feel truly incredible. Anything’s possible with the a balanced unity of power with the team. ❒
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Therese Mushock loves to connect human insights with business goals to design beautiful, effective, inspired products. She is highly curious, proactive and process-driven, and enjoys pushing through complex design challenges just as much as defining the aesthetic of a product’s final delivery. Follow her on Twitter here and check out more of her design work on her website.
