Although agile development started in the software industry, teams across many diverse industries and fields have implemented it to help with a wider variety of projects. User Experience has seen a major transformation with the introduction of agile development in the form of Agile UX Design.
Agile UX Design can be defined simply as an integration of agile principles into user experience design and development. Put into practice, it resembles quick iterative design sprints, constant collaboration, and actions upon user feedback and insight.
See the Agile Manifesto’s Principles
Despite its growing popular acceptance, some UX designers have expressed concern with the agile frameworks taking over their previous team design processes. Their main concern is that the holistic, big picture design might get lost if all that is being worked on, sprint to sprint, is lower-level UX design decisions. In an effort to address these concerns, some designers and product owners have suggested ways to combat this.
Sprint Zero
The idea behind sprint zero is to keep the designers ahead of developers throughout the process. UX designers and other team members start their preparatory work before the first official sprint to address big picture questions and lay out a roadmap for the project. The designers then stay ahead of the developers each sprint to ensure design decisions are settled before developers begin work on them.
Design Spike
A design spike is an period of time slated between two sprints in which designers can focus on larger and more complex UX issues that may arise. In every project there needs to be a greater design concept to tie together the rest of the design decisions made day-to-day, sprint-to-sprint. A spike allows UX designers time to make sure the project is on the right path.
A Designer-Led Day
Since UX design might find itself taking a backseat in some project teams, it is important to make sure the UX designer’s voice is heard and integrate them within the team. One way to get UX designers at the forefront of the process is to schedule days in which the designer leads the team. This makes sure that everyone is on the same page and is aware of big picture design goals.
Agile is proven to be an effective product development process and UX design can benefit greatly from implementing its principles. Unlike the people wary of Agile’s merging with UX, I like the iterative process that Agile brings to the table and I don’t think it is at odds with UX. It’s important to be able to react to changes and be responsive to user feedback in UX design. An iterative process with regular user testing is the ultimate way to make a great UX end product. Agile UX Design helps do just that.
