The Double Diamond for Remote Collaboration: Building Apps with Distributed Teams
Imagine you had a bad experience at some app or website and that too due to poor UI/UX design and navigation. What would you do? Next time, you will avoid that particular website or app because of past bad experiences. According to one research, 44% of people share their bad experiences with their friends and family, and that too with extra addition. The cycle goes on which will result in a bad impact overall.
It's a basic human tendency to judge everything, the viewers also judge your business in the same way. Pop web design studies indicate that 75% of people judge a brand’s credibility by its outer aesthetic and visuals.
Most of the product design issues and other conflicts arise due to a lack of collaboration. The double diamond process helps you to think like a designer and understand it.
If you are a designer, an agency, or a product designer, then you will find this article useful. Read this article if you are dealing with remote teams or simply have an interest in designing.
How Does Double Diamond Work?
Double diamond is the design framework that designers use to create innovative designs. It was founded in 2005 by the British Design Council and since then, it has been used worldwide by designers and IT companies to fulfill their unique design needs.
The reason behind its name “Double diamond” is that they consider two diamonds in this framework i.e. problem and solution. Designers here follow the design thinking framework. This includes convergent and divergent thinking.
The first diamond is a combination of discover and define where designers dive deep to identify the roots of the problems hence this is a divergent approach.
The second diamond includes development and delivery and this follows a convergent thinking approach. So, in this phase, designers take necessary action after they find the problem statements.
Read below to understand the double diamond design process in a more detailed way.
✅Discover
This is step 1 of a double diamond. Here designers think, brainstorm, explore, research, and do all the possible things to find the problems related to product design. In professional terms, experts call it” double diamond design thinking”.
✅Define
Once they have discovered the problem statement, next comes the define phase. Defining is the crucial phase in this double-diamond process because the overall developing process will define on how well the problem is defined.
Think if you yourself don't understand the problem statement better, how will you define and explain it to the team? Thats the important point here!
At this stage, teams collect data, refine the problem statement, and decide the priority. This includes deciding strategies and clear objectives to meet the user's needs.
✅Develop
Albert Einstein says, that “if he were given one -hour for problem-solving, he would spend 55 minutes just thinking about problems and the last five minutes finding a solution to the problem”.
Obviously, we humans waste more time on the problem rather than solving it. But double diamond does not work like this.
This is the stage where the team starts developing the solution. They use a variety of tools and technologies, meet with product owners, and engineers to get feedback, and make multiple iterations until the client says wow to the final product.
✅Deliver
This is the final stage where the designers prepare the product for final delivery. Designers make sure that the product is easily usable and gives a good user experience.
Designers and engineers test the design prototype and test it rigorously before handing it over to the stakeholders.
How to Use the Double Diamond for Remote Teamwork?
Because the double diamond focus is all about exploring possibilities, problems, and solutions. It is best for remote environments because it gives remote teams the freedom to experiment in their comfort.
So, if you want to use a double diamond in the distributed environment, you need to go step by step. Let me show you how.
✅Discovery Stage
Gathering useful insights is the first thing. Conduct market research and online surveys to understand your user base. Have a detailed discussion with your stakeholders to understand their competitors and other design choices. Also, ask them if they know any problem statement.
The more openly you do the discovery, the more things will start falling into their place.
Pro tip: we humans crave empathy, so focus on the empathy factor.
For brainstorming and ideation, I suggest tools like mind mapping, brainwriting, miro mural, and more.
✅Definition Stage
The next step is to take all the insights gathered and clearly define what you want in your app; that is, an app design requirement.
You can use good collaboration tools like Notion, dropbox, confluence etc to define your team duties and stay in touch in real time.
Other than this, also use remote tools for prototyping and usability to do research, create mockups, analytics, and more.
User testing, lookback, UX tweaks, and Miro mural are the some I can name.
✅Development Stage
Understand this formula:
Remote teams + Agile methods = streamlined app design process.
I can say, that nothing beats agile methodologies when it comes to working in remote environments.
Use tools such as Jira, Trello, and Slack to keep your remote teams informed about every step and proceed with great coordination.
✅Delivery Stage
Quality check is an important phase of the design process. It can be tough to do testing and quality assurance in a remote environment but thank god, there are tools like BrowserStack, testrail, postman, saucelabs, and many more.
This tool allows you to test your design on multiple devices/locations. Make sure you use this before sending the final product design to your stakeholder.
What Are The Challenges and Its Solution During Remote Collaboration In App Design?
When every team member is located at different places and still working on the same project, obviously, there are multiple challenges during the app design project.
#1. Communication Issues
The first issue is communication, and you can't solve that completely if you work remotely. This is the key of all the issues because, it will create Misunderstandings, Lack of clarity, and so on. The result is a slower progression in the end.
This could be solved by using video, messaging platforms, and detailed writing. Maintain regular updates and check-ins to ensure everyone is on the same page for the project.
#2. Fostering Creativity
I personally feel irritated, when someone delays in responding. This is a typical situation in remote work.
To solve this, call on your team to use virtual whiteboards such as Miro or host brainstorming sessions online via Zoom. you can also schedule some happy brainstorming sessions where they can share their creative ideas and solutions openly.
#3. Time Zone Challenges
Scheduling meetings and real-time collaboration is difficult across different time zones due to overlapping hours.
What you can do is, follow a disciplined schedule in the team. Schedule fixed hours of availability and ask the remote teams to be available on Slack, Trello, and email. This would actually help in getting instant replies and solve the problem quickly.
#4. Digital Tools
While working remotely, you must accept that you and your team both will depend on remote digital tools like Figma, Trello, Zoom, Slack, etc. Technical problems are common hence this is one of the cons because technical problems always give surprises anytime.
Top 6 Benefits of the Double Diamond Design Model
There are lots of good things to say about this double-diamond approach. One benefit is: that you can solve the problem at an early stage before it is too late.
#1. Focus on Users
The Double Diamond approach is more focused on understanding user needs in depth. Continuous user research, testing, and iteration help to align the end result as closely as possible with the customer expectations.
So that you can build apps that are highly highly-inclined toward your target audience.
#2. Organized Process
The team can work more systematically because the double diamond follows a specific order. We can say it is 4D( discover, define, develop, and deliver). This helps teams to approach complex challenges with a clear process.
#3. Adaptability
The double-diamond model gives teams room to play with different variables and shift gears as new information presents itself. According to the expectations of the client, the team can adapt flexibly to the new methods
#4. Supports Iterative Design
The main logic behind this is here designers iterate multiple times and refine the design changes until they meet the user requirement.
This way, it helps to make sure the end product serves both the user's needs and fulfills business goals to minimize the risk of failure.
#5. Risk Reduction
The risk is 100% reduced with this design framework. Obviously after multiple hardworks of refinement and iteration, there is very little chance of a problem to arise.
#6. Enhanced Remote Team Collaboration
Because of its structured, more well-defined phases, the remote teams can work more collaboratively with open communication. No matter, what their geographical location is.
Companies Using the Double Diamond Framework
As the Double Diamond Model became more and more popular, it has been widely used by many industries. Below are some of the top companies that have implemented the double diamond method.
Have you ever noticed Google's design sprints are closely aligned with Double Diamond principles? Google understood this thing very early good design means happy customers and ultimately happy you in the end!
This double diamond process helped google to concentrate on developing a deep understanding of user problems. This helped them stay user-centered.
✅Microsoft
If you see, Microsoft has used a double design method in every hardware and software product. Their teams focused more on collecting user feedback because it gave them better ideas to learn about user behavior and their likings.
Let us take the example of Skype, a well-known product by Microsoft. Skype asks their users for feedback on every feature like after ending the call, etc. when you give them ratings and comments. The Microsoft team knows what refinement is required.
Conclusion
Every business wants to make them look good in front of audiences and users. Your brand design is the first thing that customer sees and it speaks a lot about the business. It would not be wrong if I say, your design is a silent sales pitch because it can either win or lose you customers.
This is the system that we use at Expert App Devs to get your team moving in a user-centric manner so that you deliver top-quality mobile solutions while still catering for remote members wherever they are located.
Frequently Asked Questions
#1. Why choose Double Diamond for remote App Development?
✓ The Double Diamond process offers a clear user-centric method that can be adapted to remote teams and even different time zones. So, you should choose it because it promotes problem-insight, iterative building, and collaboration among a remote environment.
#2. What are the core purposes of using the Double Diamond process?
✓ The core purpose is to give clarity of the problem and solution to the design team so they can take necessary actions in the early phase to reduce the risk of product failure.
#3. How to do remote user research?
✓ You can do online surveys, and interviews, or try any other tactics to do remote user research. Other than this, there are many tools like maze, user testing, look back and more to connect with users in real-time.
#4. How do I define app requirements and features remotely?
✓ At Expert App Devs, you can connect with us virtually at any convenient medium or simply share documents and resources you have to define app requirements. We take data privacy very seriously hence we always sign NDAs with our clients to have a peaceful process.
#5. What are some remote prototyping and usability testing techniques?
✓ Figma and InVision are one of the effective remotely user-tested tools. Other than this, you can collect user feedback over video calls or online testing platforms, to perform comprehensive usability testing without any face-to-face meetings.
#6. How do I deal with miscommunications in a distributed team?
✓ Use communication streams like Slack, Zoom, or Trello. Ask your remote teams to download on their phone to get instant real-time notifications if there is anything urgent.
#7. What can do i when I have different thoughts and design decisions with other teammates, working remotely?
✓ People with different minds can have different opinions, but you must balance the user needs and respect the opinion of the team. So what you can do is, promote open conversations on Zoom or Google Meet. Ask your team about the source or reasons behind the specific opinion.
Perform live prototypes using Figma or Invision to visualize and get a better idea.
#8. What are the best tools for communication and collaboration in a Double Diamond framework for remote teams?
✓ Slack, Zoom, Miro, Figma, and Trello are some of the best tools for collaboration and communication, that most of remote teams use to work smoothly. These tools support real-time updates and facilitate easy coordination.
Vaibhav Patel
Project Manager
Vaibhav Patel is a project manager with expertise in web development, API development, Laravel/PHP/WordPress/Node/Perl development, database management, server management (AWS/ Microsoft Azure), mobile app development and Agile practitioner.
