This link has been bookmarked by 116 people . It was first bookmarked on 02 Dec 2008, by Steven Yamanaka.
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Marc Peppmüller"To save time, it can be wise to design only one example of each content type—one form, one search results page, and so on. With sufficient communication, the prototype can double as the spec."
agile UX process alistapart development webdesign design usability
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The good news is that Agile does allow us to still do the things we hold dear—research, develop a vision, and test and improve our designs—we just need new techniques.
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Given that Agile says “working software is the primary measure of progress,” there’s little room for detailed research.
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The iteration zero is deservedly becoming an accepted way of buying time, but some teams are extending this idea with an additional mid-project iteration zero, in which no user stories are delivered.
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Instead, developers can tidy up code and plan next steps, while designers can revisit the vision and check that brand, aesthetics, and experience are coherent across the site so far.
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Fortunately, even one or two short sessions per iteration can suffice.
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Since research must be lightweight, it must also be less meticulous.
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Agile iterations are planned to create a steady development velocity, but designers don’t always benefit from the same uniformity of workload. Therefore it can be worth exposing estimates for design too.
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“Best practice” suggests that designers should research iteration n+2, design iteration n+1, support iteration n and review iteration n-1.
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Designers should use their intuition and experience to flag up potentially complex stories in advance, giving themselves increased lead time. It’s bending the Agile rules, but should be encouraged if the product benefits.
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Lack of coherent vision is a common weakness of Agile projects.
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On the web, designers can play a similar role, but must volunteer and adapt it for themselves. This means getting involved in writing user stories and trying to guide product owners away from over-hasty solutions.
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There’s still little time to explicitly explore product vision, but we can get close by chaining user stories together into entire user journeys where possible, and designing those chained stories together.
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Instead, we can favor “interactions over processes” by starting with conversations, not templates, and choosing interactive prototypes over static wireframes.
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User experience (UX) designers have a host of options for deliverables. Lo-fi sketches and paper prototypes are ideal mechanisms for sharing design ideas and exploring discussion points, yet they are still surprisingly rare in practice. By sketching lots, quickly, and often, UX designers can rapidly iterate on their work, while building up a paper library of components, buttons, navigation elements, dropdowns, and so on.
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Prototyping in HTML or with tools like Axure and iRise can be a good alternative. While all have learning curves, they avoid the ambiguity of sketches (and the paper cuts). They’re also flexible enough for changing requirements, but consistent enough to test entire interactive user journeys.
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Visual designers still need to create high-quality graphics so they can’t stray far from Photoshop or Fireworks for the end product. However, they too should be involved in early prototype iteration with UX colleagues. Pushing proposed solutions out early and often can be an alien concept to some, but it is central to the Agile philosophy.
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“90% right” solutions are par for the course for Agile.
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but for better or worse, Agile prioritizes the timeline over virtuosity.
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There can be a temptation when designing quickly to fall back on easy stereotypes and clichés.
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Drawing on the diversity of others’ creative skills can help.
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Lack of coherent vision is a common weakness of Agile projects. This stems both from Agile’s modular nature and, to an extent, its inherent power balance. Product owners, for all their strengths, sometimes lack the tactics to appreciate the big picture. Unchecked, this can lead to vague, volatile requirements based on strategic whim, and products faithful to company daydreams, not customer reali
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21 Feb 11
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Best practice” suggests that designers should research iteration n+2, design iteration n+1, support iteration n and review iteration n-1.
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30 Nov 09
Hass MurphyGood article about the Agile development and design
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Adam NewtonWhile designers and developers look at the world from different viewpoints, the Agile philosophy is, at heart, flexible enough to sustain the approaches and views of both professions. There are still ways to fit quality design work into an Agile world.
agile development design UX usability process UI webdev webdesign waterfall software web developer designer vision
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viniciusjlAgile is here to stay. The economic difficulties of the past months have finally put waterfall out of its misery; now more than ever, long requirements phases and vaporous up-front documentation aren’t acceptable. Software must be visible and valuable fro
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17 Jul 09
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Bobby WhiteAgile, on the other hand, aims to deliver software quickly and handle change smoothly. The two systems rely on subtly contrasting ideologies: reactive versus predictive, accommodating change versus pre-empting it. Despite these differences, a lot of the A
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David FoltzFor many designers, Agile is already a fact of life (and for those less accustomed, some recommended reading follows at the foot of this article). We are reaching the point where we must either acclimatize or risk being bypassed. The good news is that Agile does allow us to still do the things we hold dear—research, develop a vision, and test and improve our designs—we just need new techniques. Now is the time to get real, and prove design can adapt, if we want to stay relevant in these increasingly unreal times.
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05 Dec 08
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Ethan GardnerFor many designers, Agile is already a fact of life (and for those less accustomed, some recommended reading follows at the foot of this article). We are reaching the point where we must either acclimatize or risk being bypassed. The good news is that Agi
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Yeray DariasAgile is here to stay. The economic difficulties of the past months have finally put waterfall out of its misery; now more than ever, long requirements phases and vaporous up-front documentation aren’t acceptable. Software must be visible and valuable fro
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02 Dec 08
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rgundersonA LIST apart: Getting Real about Agile Design
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maxwellineverInteresting article and list of useful reading around agile design, written by Cennydd Bowles of Clearleft.
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30 Nov 08
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