Key Differences Between The Double Diamond Approach And Lean UX

The Double Diamond approach and Lean UX are both popular methods used in the field of design thinking and user experience (UX) design. While both approaches aim to improve the user experience and create successful products, there are some key differences between the two methodologies.

Basics of the Double Diamond

The Double Diamond approach, developed by the Design Council in the UK, consists of four key stages: discover, define, develop, and deliver. In the discover phase, designers conduct research to understand the problem and gather insights from users. In the define phase, designers analyze the research findings and define the problem they are trying to solve. The develop phase involves ideation and prototyping, where designers come up with solutions and test them with users. Finally, in the deliver phase, the final product is developed and launched.

Basics of Lean UX

Lean UX is a methodology that focuses on quick prototyping and iterating on the results based on user feedback. Lean UX emphasises collaboration and a constant feedback loop between designers, developers, and stakeholders. Teams work in small, cross-functional groups to rapidly prototype ideas and test them with users. This approach is more flexible and allows for quick changes to be made based on user insights.

Lean UX is often applied within Agile Software Development projects. But I have worked with both approaches, and the Double Diamond approach can be integrated in agile flows as well.

Key differences

One of the key differences between the Double Diamond approach and Lean UX is the level of detail and structure in the design process. The Double Diamond approach follows a linear process with defined stages, while Lean UX is more iterative.

But the flexibility of each approach depends on what you do with the process. The Double Diamond helps understand the different stages of information gathering and processing. Lean UX is a circular method with immediate feedback, but nothing would stop you from using a circular feedback method within a stage of the Double Diamond process.

Continuously checking with stakeholders if their software fulfils their expectations is great, but getting user feedback in this stage is often abandoned – a weakness of the Lean UX approach, if there is no initial user context research.

Combining advantages

One great advantage of the Double Diamond approach is its adherence to achievements in stages. The Lean UX method, on the other hand, is very helpful when the development stage of the User Interface design has begun, utilising prototypes (user flow descriptions, wireframes, clickable Figma prototypes).

The Double Diamond approach places a strong emphasis on research and understanding the problem before designing solutions, while Lean UX focuses on quick prototyping and testing to gather feedback. Combining the best of both approaches, we can benefit from their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.

Conclusion

Both methods, the Double Diamond approach and Lean UX, are two popular progressive design approaches that aim to improve the user experience and help us to create successful products. While they share some similarities, such as a focus on user-centric design (UCD) and collaboration, there are also key differences in terms of process and approach.

It helps us all – project managers, developers, feature architects, business analysts, UX designers and other UX professionals – if we all have a deeper understanding and some experiences with the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, so we can choose the method that best suits our needs.