Tag: user experience

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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 can help. Continue reading “Ten ways to improve the usability of products that Agile teams build”

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Teamwork reduces design risk

It takes a range of skills to develop a product. Each skill—embodied in the individuals who apply that skill—brings with it a different focus:

  • Product managers talk about features and market needs.
  • Business development  talk about revenue opportunities.
  • Developers talk about functionality.
  • Usability analysts talk about product- and user performance.
  • Interaction designers talk about the user experience.
  • QA talks about quality and defects.
  • Marketing talks about the messaging.
  • Technical communicators talk about information and assistance.
  • You may be thinking of others. (I’m sorry I’ve overlooked them.)

What brings all these together is design.

Proper design begins with information: a problem statement or brief, information about the targeted users and the context of use, the broad-brush business constraints, Design as a teamsome measurable outcomes (requirements, metrics, or goals), access to a subject-matter expert to answer questions about the domain and perhaps to present a competitor analysis.

Design continues by saturating the design space with ideas and, after the space is filled, analysing and iterating the ideas into possible solutions. The design process will raise questions, such as:

  • What is the mental model?
  • What are the use cases?
  • What is the process?

The analysis will trigger multiple rapid iterations of the possible solutions, as the possible solutions are worked toward a single design:

  • Development. What are the technical constraints? Coding costs? Effect on the stability of the existing code? Downstream maintenance costs?
  • Usability and experience. Does the design comply with heuristics? Does it comply with the standards of the company, the industry, and the platform? Does paper-prototyping predict that the designed solution is usable?
  • User experience. Will the designed solution be pleasing due to its quality, value, timeliness, efficiency, innovation, or the five other common measures of customer satisfaction?
  • Project sponsor. Is the design meeting the requirements? Is it reaching its goals or metrics?

It’s risky to expect one person—a developer, for example—to bring all these skills and answers to the table.  A team—properly facilitated and using an appropriate process—can reduce the risk and reliably produce great designs.