I often get asked how I go about designing a site or an app, as a freelancer the answer is that it invariably varies depending on the agency and client that I work with.

There is no clearly defined way to work but, in my experience having worked at over 50 agencies over the past 18 years, the following elements need to be defined and explored for a project to work well.

• How big is the team?

• Who am I working with?

• Who are the stakeholders?

• Who has final sign off?

• What are the timelines of the deliverables?

• What format are the deliverables?

• What is the brief?

• Who is going to use the product?

• What does the product need to do?

• How is the product being built?

• What are the technical limitations?

• What are your competitors doing?

• What other products are doing things well?

• What would the user want to do?

• How would the user complete a journey?

• What brand elements can we use?

• How should the product look and feel to the user?