Discover who the business stakeholders, subject matter experts, system end-users and user experience experts are, and work with them to understand what the new presence will entail. Conduct planning activities for the UX stream at a high-level and evaluate competitor products.

Use statistical data from existing metrics (i.e. web analytics) to identify potential areas of process improvement, and further data mine those findings during end-user research (such as end-user questionnaires, SME interviews and directed focus groups).

Once both business requirements and end user requirements are gathered, personas are created and a content inventory is derived.
Subsequently, modelling based on task analysis and goal analysis is completed. The initial version of the sitemap is created.

Design iteratively following a user-centered design (UCD) methodology, by addressing interaction design, navigation models, wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes (paper, HTML, Visio, etc).
Perform initial usability testing on the low-fidelity prototypes.

Branding, visual identity and graphical treatment are being applied, combined with functional multimedia features (e.g. Flash). A prototype of the final front end is produced and validated with both business and end-users via cognitive walkthroughs / summative usability evaluations.

The last phase of an iteration is conducting complex usability tests on the newly created user interface prototype. This will allow us to catch any last minute interaction and interface design miscues, and address them before the interface goes to production.