I'm a user experience specialist that came into a company already using agile practices. When I first got there I tried to jump straight into the sprints with interaction designs. This resulted in a lot of confusion, unnecessary changes, and a less than ideal user interface.
We took a step back on a recent project and held a relatively long "sprint 0" - I spent 2 months conducting user research, defining the major design problems and solutions, defining UX/branding vision and strategy, and developing the basic design architecture (navigation and interaction style) with the help of paper prototype testing. The graphic designer also took this time to develop a set of icons and visual style for the new system. We now work one sprint ahead to define the detailed screenshots, acceptance criteria, and conduct user visits to get feedback on features. I also work as the product owner defining the stories on the backlog. Although I am a very strong proponent of agile methods, I am still not entirely sure how we could have reconciled the large amount of UX work that we did upfront with the agile rule of thumb that suggests only spending 2 weeks on Sprint 0. Perhaps it is because I am working alone - a team of 3-4 designers could probably work much faster and also be able to handle much more design work during the sprints. A shorter sprint 0 might also have been doable in a company with an established UX infrastructure (e.g. a style guide/UI standards and a good understanding of user needs), but we didn't have this and had to start from scratch. I think it is important to attend the sprint planning meetings and work within the sprints with the development teams. Jeff Patton talks about the difference between incremental development and iterative development. I'm not sure if I can explain it perfectly, but basically incremental development is how you described in your email Jessica, where you have a big picture of the UI and you break it down into small pieces and feed it to development. Iterative development, on the other hand, would involve developing the system in small parts and reevaluating the design at each step. Iterative development as used in agile methods gives more room for flexibiliy and to take advantage of oppurtunities. For example, if it comes out in a sprint planning meeting that a feature that you have designed would take 4 weeks development time, you might work together with development to understand the technical problems and redefine the feature so that it only takes 1 or 2 weeks development time. Incremental design does not work in this case, because changing the nature of this feature might also mean you have to adapt other parts of the interface to maintain consistency or to take into account the technical constraints that you just became aware of. Agile methods aim to create the most business value in the least amount of time. I find that this means that I sometimes have to be flexible in my ideals regarding the perfect UX design, just as the developers have to be flexible on their ideas of what would be the fastest system to develop. We do spend a good amount of time defining "in-between" steps where the developers will not be able to create the complete feature (as designed) in this sprint, but only a part of it. It would be great to hear the experiences of others on this list in resolving design and agile methods. - Liz -- Elizabeth Whitworth User experience specialist TRANSPOREON GmbH Ulm, Germany On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 6:26 AM, Kim Mc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My experience is that you as a UX person need to be involved in the product > definition or 'backlog' throughout the entire development process and not > just the beginning definition phase. Sometimes you will need to be more of > a product manager than a UX person, and be willing to limit or streamline > the amount of documentation you end up doing (not necessarily a bad thing). > Just In Time Design is an Agile mantra.... Be flexible and work directly > with developers as a team, not just delivering specs and wireframes then > moving on. > > It is important, however, to have a good strategic vision to build from, > which can often be the most challenging part to fit into an agile process. > There is the concept of "sprint 0" - that this is the intial sprint where > you work out all of the high-level strategy and IA structure then create > your backlog from there. I personally like to have specific UX deliverables > or demos in each sprint so that UX and possibly design stay 1 sprint ahead > of the development team. The demo for the UX team is wireframes or a > clickable prototype that is presented to the group. > > Jeff Patton has some interesting ideas and tips about UX and agile > http://agileproductdesign.com/blog/ > > Hope this is helpful. > > Kim > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Jessica Petersen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, November 3, 2008 4:50:45 PM > Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Agile & UXD > > What are your experiences in an agile environment? What has worked for > you and what hasn't? > > > > My organization is considering employing agile, and I tend to be of the > opinion that UXD needs to be at the forefront of the process thinking > about things holistically - then breaking the project into chunks that > will eventually result in a complete user experience. However, I have > received quite a bit of push back in this regard and have found it > difficult to find other experiences which support my thoughts. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > > > > Jessica Petersen > Senior UX Designer > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 801.722.7000 x 1483 tel > 801.722.7001 fax > > > 550 East Timpanogos Circle > Orem, UT 84097 > www.omniture.com <http://www.omniture.com> > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... 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