Boxes And Arrows : The Design Behind the Design

Article Idea:

Agile user centred design

suggested by marc mcneill on 2006/06/22

Here’s an idea. Agile methods are becoming increasingly common in application design, with their collaborative customer focus and iterative, test driven approach. They share many common principles, yet it is rare for Agile methods to incorporate user centred design and vice versa. Do a search for “agile” on boxes and arrows and you won’t find any stories on it. It shouldn’t be this way; the overall agile process of rapid iterations around a tangible model is supremely compatible with the user-centred design approach. There is a story here just waiting to be unleashed. There’s a thread that by combining Agile software development with user-centred design you’ll reap the rewards. Here are a few to get us started…

• Better understanding of the problem.
• Allows rapid testing and validation of story concepts before time consuming coding.
• Provides a clear, sociable visual representation of the project vision.
• Provides usability by stealth.
• Engaging the end user as a customer.
• Improves basis for estimation.
• Mitigates project risk.