Category: Research

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Ten ways to improve the usability of products that Agile teams build

Software development that uses a waterfall method is likely to deliver the wrong thing, too late. The intent of the Agile method is to deliver working software sooner, so the intended users—our clients and their customers—can provide feedback that steers us to deliver the right thing.

There’s a tension between delivering on time and delivering the right thing. In fact, the rush for on-time delivery can result in the wrong thing—an unusable product. There are ways to prevent this. User research is part of the solution.

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Predict your “usable release” date by integrating user research

A question that stakeholders, project managers, and product owners ask in common, when it comes to shipping or releasing software products:

  • When will it be done?

This question can be answered by using a burn-down chart. Such charts can also predict when the product will be a usable, quality product. To predict this, add certain user-research findings to the chart.

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User research to adjust to regional needs

When communicating with audiences around the world, the text in your software or service user interface is important. You’ll need to translate.

Translation is just one step. Delivering software in multiple languages takes more than that. Products and services need to be adjusted to regional expectations.

Even things you may assume are universal concepts—such as names or money—may need to be adapted. User research can uncover those regional differences. Here’s a quick look at:

  • names, specifically middle initials
  • money, in the form of bank loans
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The ease of user research goes in cycles

The tools of user research have evolved substantially over the past three decades, and need to evolve more.

Here’s a history from last century through today, based on my experience.

To observe and record how people use devices, user researchers have had to learn to test

  • computer software, by using expensive usability labs,
  • desktop software, by using other desktop computers,
  • smartphone apps, by using apps,
  • household appliances and outdoor digital experiences, by using portable usability labs,
  • self-powered and motorised vehicles, by using GPS and streaming apps.
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Divergent thinking can make better software

If your development team wants to build genuinely new features or services that are innovative or “outside the box”, how would you do it?

In broad strokes, often there’s an initial design discussion to map the project requirements to a sensible idea. Then there may be a proof of concept to test any risky parts. Finally the team develops the idea into a solution, and tests it. This overall approach uses convergent thinking to identify a solution.

Would it surprise you to know this approach is firmly inside the proverbial box, and less likely to lead to a genuinely new or innovative solution?

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