Question for UX designers: Is there a systematic approach to the location of buttons in the interface (10-20 buttons)?

Question

User interface

When designing a complex product (analytical platform), I encountered the fact that it was not clear in what order to place the buttons on the toolbar.
Option #1: Arrange buttons in order of frequency of use
A problem arises - in a multifunctional application, any button can be important depending on the task being performed. This option doesn't work. Need a system.
Option number 2 - a systematic approach.
I tried to structure the functions of one of the application's tools using mind maps. The structure looks nice. But in fact, important functions are not located at the beginning, but in different places.

Does anyone have experience of a systematic approach to the problem of the location of elements?
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Hello,
Here comes the discovery phase, if there is only a list of features.
For a full-fledged service, it would be good to understand:
- A general approach to design - for whom are we creating? For the buyer (Customer Centered Design), the operator (System CD), the person from the street (Human CD), the user as a whole (User CD), etc.;
- Determine the number of roles, describe them - problems, daily tasks, pains, etc. (Personas);
- Decide on the production methodology (Waterfall, Agile, etc.);
- If this is an existing process, then describe the As-Is Workflow for understanding; if not, describe the future process;
From all this, you can estimate the concept (Proof of Concept) and see what happens.
When this minimum is reached, you can sit down and think about the MVP - what service will it be, what it will consist of, what to do in the first place and what not.
Moreover, I would not confuse features and objects in maps.
Displaying a product and managing it are different schemes.
There are also screens where there are some screens and some features)
To work through each screen, you need to understand:
- Who uses it;
What problem are we currently solving.
It’s also possible to dump everything and everything - let the person figure it out himself, but they won’t say thank you)

Answer 2

In general, you can open gmail and peek. It's just that all this above is not even a question, but a (not) offer to earn from 2000 to 5000 euros. =))