Agile UX
Ways of working that integrate research and experience design into agile development, in short iterations and in parallel with the people who code.
What it’s for
So that research and design keep pace with development that ships every few weeks, instead of falling behind or being skipped.
Principles
One cycle ahead
You research and design what will be built in the next iteration.
Test what was built
What shipped in the previous cycle is evaluated with users.
Little and often
Small, frequent research.
How it’s done
While one cycle is being built, design prepares the next one.
What was built in the previous cycle is tested with users.
What you learn goes into the design of the next cycle.
Applications in design
When to use it
When the product is developed in iterations of a few weeks.
Avoid
Reducing design to decorating what has already been coded.
Don’t fall for it
Set aside time for in-depth research: not everything fits in one cycle.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2001
Kent Beck et al.
Published the Agile Manifesto: working software and responding to change over fixed plans.
- 2005
Lynn Miller
Described how the interface design team at Alias worked one cycle ahead of the developers.
- 2007
Desirée Sy
Described how a design team worked one cycle ahead of development and tested what had already been built.
Sources
Original sources
- Beck, K. et al. (2001). Manifesto for agile software development. View source: Beck, K. et al. (2001)
- Miller, L. (2005). Case study of customer input for a successful product. In Proceedings of the Agile Development Conference (ADC 2005). IEEE.
- Sy, D. (2007). Adapting usability investigations for agile user-centered design. Journal of Usability Studies, 2(3), 112–132. View source: Sy, D. (2007)
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