[IxDA Discuss] Introducing UX design in an agile environment

Tue May 1 15:47:40 PDT 2007

Bruce, Andrew, and Dave - thanks for your responses.

Bruce - I have looked at Leisa's deck, and it is great. But, to abuse
her "washing machine" analogy, I'm looking for more resources that can
help me tell my team the story of how the UX detergent can help them
get their laundry cleaner than ever before. :)

Andrew - I have to admit that I'm a bit skeptical that rapid
contextual design is actually applicable in my situation. RCD seems to
be focused on user research rather than design or validation, which is
unfortunately a luxury I can ill afford at present. Furthermore, the
authors' definition of bare bones RCD is "a two-person team with only
a few weeks to spare", which is how my team builds whole features. :)

Dave - was there a specific Constantine & Lockwood paper you had in mind?

Thanks again and more suggestions welcome!

Dmitry

On 5/1/07, David Malouf <dave.ixd at gmail.com> wrote:
> I know that Lockhart and Constantine (foruse.com) have a paper about
> Agile and UX stuff and in fact Larry Constantine will be giving a
> course on the topic of IxD and Agile environments at UI12 (I know a
> ways off) this coming November.
>
> Info for the specific workshop is here:
> http://www.uie.com/events/uiconf/2007/program/#constantine
>
> As an attendee and speaker I can tell you this is one of the best
> weeks I have ever spent at a UX conference. The quality of the program
> is like nothing you'll get at a professional association conference.
> All good, no bad!
>
> And!!! if you register now you get an iPod video AND a major discount
> on the event.
>
> Ok, I'll stop. Seriously, I'm not speaking or attending this year ...
> I'm just a fan.
>
> -- dave
>
>
>
> On 5/1/07, andrew_hinton at vanguard.com <andrew_hinton at vanguard.com> wrote:
> > The book "Rapid Contextual Design" goes to some pains to integrate
> > contextual design practices (most of which we consider to be standard UX
> > discovery, analysis and visioning methods) into Agile, and how to explain
> > that to IT professionals. You may want to check that out. (It's a great
> > book to have anyway.)
> >
> > http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Contextual-Design-How-User-Centered/dp/0123540518
> >
> > ---
> > Andrew Hinton
> > www.inkblurt.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Bruce Esrig <esrig-ia at esrig.com>
> > Sent by: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
> > 05/01/2007 03:38 PM
> >
> > To
> > "Dmitry Nekrasovski" <mail.dmitry at gmail.com>
> > cc
> > IxDA Discuss <discuss at ixda.org>
> > Subject
> > Re: [IxDA Discuss] Introducing UX design in an agile  environment
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I recently completed a project in which the development team was changing
> > over to an Agile approach. We divided the problem space up into domains,
> > each addressed by a solution team.
> >
> > On this project, there were two roles to talk to: systems engineers and
> > developers. The systems engineers seemed to think about a lot of the same
> > issues that a user experience designer would, but from a systems point of
> > view: what goes on each page ... to feed the needs of the system. The
> > developers were very interested in getting enough specifics so they could
> > go off and prototype.
> >
> > The role of the user experience person was to perpetually raise the level
> > of discussion. What does the user need most today? What is the user's
> > goal?
> > What do we need to engineer into the user's world view to best reflect
> > that
> > goal? What approximation to that can we easily add to the user interface,
> > in a way that will permit us to continue to migrate towards the ideal
> > later?
> >
> > With that introduction, perhaps you would enjoy Leise Reichelt's slide
> > deck
> > from the IA Summit, which is available at
> > http://www.slideshare.net/leisa/waterfall-bad-washing-machine-good-where-does-ia-fit-in-the-design-process/
> >
> >
> > There are a few slides of background, and then you can see her main idea
> > starting at slide 16. She shows a correspondence between some Agile
> > approaches and some user experience techniques. The way I understand it,
> > if
> > the user experience person fits in well with the rapid-turnaround life
> > cycle of an Agile methodology, the team will be happy to have the benefit
> > of the guidance that personas and user stories can provide.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Bruce Esrig
> >
> > At 03:05 PM 5/1/2007, Dmitry Nekrasovski wrote:
> >
> > >I've recently started a new role as the first UX designer in a company
> > >practicing an agile development process. I'm now working on an
> > >internal presentation to introduce UX principles within an agile
> > >context.
> > >
> > >So far, I've found a number of resources that aim to explain agile
> > >approaches to UX practitioners, but very little along the lines of
> > >explaining UX principles and practices to agile developers. Does
> > >anyone have any pointers they'd be willing to share?
> > >
> > >Dmitry
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________
> > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> > To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> > List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> > List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> > (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> > Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> > Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> > Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> > Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT. The information contained in this e-mail message, including attachments, is the confidential information of, and/or is the property of, Vanguard. The information is intended for use solely by the individual or entity named in the message. If you are not an intended recipient or you received this in error, then any review, printing, copying, or distribution of any such information is prohibited, and please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and then delete this e-mail from your system.
> > ________________________________________________________________
> > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> > To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> > List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> > List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> > (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> > Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> > Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> > Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> > Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
> >
>
>
> --
> David Malouf
> http://synapticburn.com/
> http://ixda.org/
> http://motorola.com/
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
>