Process

How the work runs

Five steps, each with something you can hold at the end of it.

True 5

We talk to five real users before we design anything.

True 5 is how every Renders Arc website, app and piece of software begins. Before a design file opens, we sit down one-on-one with five people who match the actual end user, and what they say shapes the brief.

Not a survey. Not a focus group. Five separate conversations.

Five is where we have heard enough to act.

Every design carries a hidden set of real problems. Each conversation uncovers some of them. Step through the five and watch what the first person finds, then what the fifth adds.

Not yet heardAlready heardFound in this conversation
85%

of the design’s real problems found

Five conversations

Five reaches roughly 85%. A sixth would mostly repeat what we already know, so this is where we stop guessing and start building.

Figures are approximate and follow Nielsen Norman Group’s usability research on how many test users a design needs. Read the research.

Why it is called True.

Five people who are easy to reach are not the same as five people who will use the product. The name works as a filter on who we invite.

Convenient five

  • A founder’s friends
  • Whoever is in the office
  • Whoever is easiest to reach

True five

  • People who match the actual end user
  • People who would genuinely open the thing
  • Five separate, one-on-one conversations

Assumptions in a meeting, replaced by people.

Most studios let the design take shape from whatever is loudest in the room.

  • The client’s opinion
  • The founder’s gut
  • A competitor’s screenshot
  • Whoever is loudest in the room
At Renders Arc, it starts with

Five conversations with the people who will actually open the thing.

Design starts after, not before.

True 5 happens at the very start of a project, once the scope is agreed and before any design file opens.

  1. Scope agreedWe know what we are making and why.
  2. True 5Five conversations with real users.
  3. The briefWhat we heard becomes the brief.
  4. DesignThe first file opens here.

What do you do today without this?

Where would you get stuck?

What words would you actually use?

What would make you trust this enough to act?

The questions we bring to every conversation.

Five conversations get you to roughly 85% of the problems a design will actually have, so that is where we stop guessing and start building.

Start a project with True 5