The Iterative approach to design and development

The Iterative approach to design and development

The arrival of modern development languages, programming languages and other technologies, not least the internet, meant that industry and digital professionals required more flexible and responsive ways to capture requirements and develop digital products. The key feature of the newer technologies was that they supported a prototyping approach to design and development requiring less specific proposals, producing more  dynamic results.

Essentially, developpers take initial ideas from the client/ customer, produce a first-cut design, build a prototype and then test that with the client/customer and other audiences to gather feedback. Rather than trying to foresee all the potential problems and user needs, they move through a series of iterations to gradually refine and improve the product so that it will be more useful. The process can then be repeated several times, and assuming the designers and developers respond appropriatley to the feedback, each time they will produce a better match to what the client/customer requires and allow additions in functionality, improvements in design, etc.

This 'iterative' approach is noe reflected in the majority of digital product developments. The real drivers in terms of determining how many iterations are possible are the amount of money avalible to provide resources and the time/deadline for implementing the new product.

Design

The design phase defines how the finished digital product will operate. Designers will typically produce a 'design specification', a kind of…