Content Design Chronicles: Wrike’s 3-step design process

Welcome to the latest installment of Content Design Chronicles, where we feature our very own Wrike experts as they share the intricacies of their creative processes. This week, we get to hear from Alexey Atapin, Lead Web Designer here at Wrike. Thanks for sharing a glimpse into your creative process, Alexey! 

Hi, I’m Alexey, Lead Web Designer for Wrike, based in our Prague office. I primarily work on our main website and landing pages, building and refining our web design system. I work in close collaboration with PMs, developers, the content team, and other designers to bring our creative ideas to life.

Today, I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes view of what our design process is like and how we create the visual side of engaging web pages. 

We use a three-step process for all of our designs. Here’s a quick rundown of that process and workflow.

1. Where we get ideas

We gather ideas from everywhere: 

• Competitor insights: We browse competitor websites to see what catches users’ eyes and note trends that work — and those that don’t. 
• User feedback: Comments, surveys, and usability studies provide us with real, hands-on insights, straight from our users. 
• Team inspiration activities: It’s a part of our team culture to share interesting findings in the team chat. It could be some UX article or just a website link. We also host a digital inspiration board where team members pin snazzy visuals, cool layouts, and articles on the latest UX trends. 
• Brainstorming sessions: Using dedicated Klaxoon boards, we hold regular sessions where everyone — from designers to developers — throws in ideas. 

These varied sources fuel our team’s creative engine and give us a pool of ideas to work with.

2. How we bring them to life

With a stack of fresh ideas, it’s time to turn concepts into tangible designs. We rely on our comprehensive design system — a collection of pre-approved components — to keep our work consistent. With this design system, designers can easily craft interactive prototypes that let us see ideas in action.

When designing new website widgets, we think about a lot of things: whether it’s useful for users, the potential impact on business, what system restrictions we have, the cost of development, how to localize the interface, and how it will look in the website admin. We invite not only designers but people from other departments to our design reviews. The quality assurance team and developers help us to catch potential issues and possible edge cases, and suggest improvements before spending time on development. 

We know that context matters, and the same widget can be used in various ways. A simple feature section with a product screenshot and side description might include benefits, quotes, ratings, animation, a static image, or even an abstract illustration. All these options are available in our website admin, so the website team can choose the right setup for their needs.

This collaborative approach means that every idea is refined, practical, and consistent with our brand’s visual language.  

3. Why we test everything

Before finalizing any design, we need to know that it works in the real world. 

We often set up simple A/B tests to compare two versions of a design element. For instance, we might test a static design against an interactive one to see which engages users better. All of our test results are collected on a public Wrike board so that any Wriker can review them. This transparency helps the entire team learn from each test. If the test results show room for improvement, we bring the design back to the board. Our team tweaks, retests, and refines until we’re sure the final design is both user-friendly and technically solid. Maintaining a cycle of feedback and iteration ensures that our work is always evolving to meet user needs. 

Our simple yet collaborative design process

Our design process is all about keeping things simple yet collaborative. Our three-step process keeps us on track throughout every project:

• We start with a broad mix of ideas from users, competitors, and our own inspiration boards. 
• Then, we bring those ideas to life using our design system, interactive prototyping, and real-time Wrike feedback sessions. 
• Finally, by testing our designs with live data and making iterative improvements, we ensure that the end product is thoroughly refined.

Whether you’re a seasoned designer or just curious about our process, remember that great UX is a team sport —  one where every idea is valued, every design is refined, and every test makes us better. 

On a personal note, I love how automating our team’s processes means I get to spend less time on routine work and more time on my favorite thing: experimenting with new design ideas and bringing them to life.

Thanks for joining us for the latest in our Content Design Chronicles series. Stay tuned for the next edition!