Research is the basic key step to design user experience. Design team does their research work to explore how the outer world is working on such features.
Here are three purposes of this analysis:
(i) Understand market competition.
(ii) Learn about your domain.
(iii) Get inspiration and ideas from your competitors.
 

This stage involves a UI definition of the required feature. The design team drives this activity which is based on the last two stages of the process. We draw paper sketches, whiteboard flows, and wireframes to share our ideas with stakeholders.

Now after you have finalized the layout and flow of the required interface with you, the next step is to work on final graphics.

Since technical people participate in early stages of the process, they can start implementation while the Design phase is in progress. An amazing user experience can only be provided by following an iterative Design process.