Ucd_perspective.pdf (application/pdf Object) Agile Product Design, holistic product design and agile software. Agile Product Design, holistic product design and agile software. Google Image Result for. Clash of the Titans: Agile and UCD. By Richard F. Cecil Published: December 18, 2006 “It’s possible to devise a process that is both user-centered and agile.” Agile software development [1] has become fairly popular in the last few years, leaving many UX professionals wondering how user-centered design (UCD) can fit into an extremely fast-paced development process that uses little documentation. Similarities Between Agile and UCD Methods “An agile development method, at its core, is about delivering useful software.”
Let’s start by exploring the similarities between the two approaches. I particularly like Alistair Cockburn’s comparison of an agile development process to a cooperative game: “Software development is a (resource-limited) cooperative game of invention and communication. A human-centered design approach allows us to better understand the people who use our products, while agile development techniques let us build, test, deliver, and revise our products faster. Differences Between Agile and UCD Methods What to do? Andy Budd::Blogography: User Centred Design and Agile Developmen. Clearleft is a UCD, or User Centred Design consultancy. We spend time learning about the people who use our clients products, and then put those users at the heart of the design process. We do this using a variety of techniques from user surveys and contextual enquiry, through to persona creation, wireframing and usability testing.
The ultimate goal of this process is to create experiences that are useful and meaningful to the people using our clients software. As a company we specialise in the architecture and design side of the equation. We understand programming and development, but it’s not a service we offer. When clients come to us for implementation, we prefer to partner with another agency that specialises in back-end development.
Not being a developer, I’ve always been a bit nervous about agile development. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the Flash on the Beach conference in Brighton. Ten Steps to User Persona By Dr. Lene Nielsen. Having worked with personas before the method ever came to be known as personas there are, from my research and practical experience, three important areas that have to be considered: the data material, engagement in the personas descriptions, and buy-in from the organization which is part of the development process whether it is redesign or a development from scratch.
This is the rationale behind my development of 10 steps to personas, an attempt to cover the entire process from initial data gathering to ongoing development. In the following I will briefly outline the 10 steps. Any project that uses personas does not necessarily need to follow all 10 steps as long as the responsible party knows the consequences of skipping a step. Step 1: Finding the UsersThe initial step is to get hold of as much knowledge of the users as possible. The data can originate from several sources: interviews, observations, second hand information, questionnaires, reports, cultural probes etc.