making faster ux in an agile world - hoapitt 2017

Heart of Agile

Pittsburgh, PA

April 28, 2017

Carol Smith

@carologic

Making Faster UX

in an Agile World

IBM Watson / #HOAPITT / @carologic / April 28, 2017

Arguments Against UX/Design

• User Experience (UX) work is slow!

• Design is indecisive - make up your mind!

• Dev is always wrong!


"The biggest waste of all

is building something

no one wants"

- @ericries #LeanStartupMI via @MelBugai


Shared Values between UX and Agile

• Users and interactions

– Not individual customers

• Working software

• User collaboration

– Not customer specific

– Usability testing with users

• Responding to change


Design at IBM Watson


Goals of UX

• Everyone understands users

• Solve problems with simplest solution

• Encourage collaborations

• Think ahead


Increased understanding of users

• Who are they?

• Needs and goals?

• Problems they are trying to solve?

• Latent needs?

• Language/acronyms used?


Goal is not to hit a nail

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hammer-lever_diagram.jpg


Goal is to build…


Users goals are not…

• Logging in

• Clicking next

• Uploading docs

• Filling out a form

• Solve their problem – as simply as possible


Encourage Collaborations

• How can we approach this problem together?


Think ahead to solve problems

• Big work is coming?

• Change as product matures?

• What next in product lifecycle?

Bart Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Simpson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Simpson


No BDUF!*

• Just enough

• Solve the problem

• Future vision

– Concept Cars

– Know the North Star

*Big Design Up Front


Shared Documents Aren’t Shared Understanding

Cartoon by Luke Barrett © Jeff Patton, all rights reserved, www.AgileProductDesign.com


Imbedding UX


Squads include UX folk

• Researcher and interaction designer on squad

– Visual designer can be shared

• Larger products

– Many squads

– Focus on user interactions

– Consult on other teams as needed (e.g. review API flow)


Designers are part of the team

• Standups/Scrums

• Planning/grooming, review, retro, demo

• Estimating work

• Take turns with Agile roles

• Design doing QA of design work

Image: http://intland.com/blog/project-management-en/tips-and-tricks-

to-make-the-most-of-your-retrospectives/

http://intland.com/blog/project-management-en/tips-and-tricks-to-make-the-most-of-your-retrospectives/


Collaborative Activities


Co-Design

• Developers, product owner/manager and designers work

together on early sketching, task analysis, etc.

• Pro’s

– All info needed – tech, business, user

– Shared understanding – saves time

– Solve problem together

• Con’s

– Time consuming; reduces time to build


Usability Testing

• Team members actively observe

– Working software or prototypes

– Goal to have less usability issues in software

– Can watch remotely

• Pro’s

– Gain empathy for users; understand struggles and what works

• Cons

– Time; Not all sessions are great (but most are!)


Visiting Customers

• Observe customers and see how they work

• Pro’s

– Major potential increase in empathy

• Con’s

– Major time investment

– Time away from coding


Keep Trying

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireatwillrva/5823369990


Parallel-Track

Workflows

a.k.a. Staggered Sprints


Agile Design Timing: Parallel Tracks

• Developer track:

– Focus is on production code

– Whole team (including design)

• Interaction designers track

– Focus is on user contact (Dev less involved)

Slide from Tutorial: Making UX Agile and Lean at UXPA 2016 by John Schrag,

Carol Smith and Thyra Rauch http://uxpa2016.org/event/making-ux-agile-and-lean

http://uxpa2016.org/event/making-ux-agile-and-lean


Iteration 1





Iteration 2





And so on…





Constant Communication

• Between the two tracks - essential for success

• Not just hand-offs





Pros and Cons - Parallel/Staggered work

• Pros

– Gives UX a head start

– Lot of backend work needs to be done anyway

– Establish common vision

• Who for?

• Common “elevator statement”

• Cons

– Can lead to BDUF and Waterfall


Balancing Act

• Understand users, context, etc. • Create personas, mental models, etc.• Prepare for story mapping

and other sessions thoroughly

Strive for UX Best Practices

• Engineers need designs to develop

• Research cannot continue forever

Meet Production Needs

Agile requires leaner methodsTime box and focus on outcomes


Building #UX Stories

and

Breaking down work


Story Card Progress

• Is UX Needed?

– What is the story?

– What do we know?

– What do we need to know?

• Lean UX to answer questions

– Interviews, observations, prototype testing, etc.

32

Kanban

Do Review Done


Example: Story Breakdown

• Big Story: User can move, duplicate, or remove selected text

in a document.

• Stories: Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete

– How do you order these four stories?

– Which one comes first? Why?

– Which one comes second? Why?

– Which one comes third? Why?

© Copyright 2014 Desirée Sy & John Schrag. All rights reserved.


Conversations to understand

• Relationships between stories

• Structure and hierarchy of related stories

• Functionality that is being built

• Conversations to share knowledge

• Clarify assumptions about what is to be built


User Story Mapping

• Organize user stories into a map that communicates experience


Represents Complexity and Size of Work

time

Refine the map and test for

completeness with the

entire team - developers,

designers, BA’s etc.


Encourage Information Radiators

• User information

• Customer journeys

• Photos from research

• Usability metrics

Photo: https://medium.com/@FBResearch/beyond-bullet-points-four-

creative-ways-to-share-research-c10fa047f025#.cdauyngei

https://medium.com/@FBResearch/beyond-bullet-points-four-creative-ways-to-share-research-c10fa047f025#.cdauyngei


Enable design stories

• “Problems we will find while usability testing”

• “Research to inform personas”

• “Design debt”


Integrating UX Activities


Light Design - Lean UX

• Iterative

• Repeatable

• Incremental

• Get to 80% confidence


Usability Testing is…

• Representative users

• Doing real tasks

• Being observed

• Using prototypes

or live products

• Not User Acceptance Testinghttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelquinet/513351385/sizes/l/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelquinet/


Continuous Learning Benefits

• Save time & money

• Minimize human cost (users & team)

• Better UX means increased

– Usefulness

– Efficiency

– Productivity


Small scope is good

• 5-7 participants uncover

~80% of major usability problems

• Don’t try to be statistically

significant

• Diminishing returns

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html

Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox. Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users. March 19, 2000.

Number of Test Participants

Participants are representative of specific user group

and are doing representative tasks

More participants takes more time, costs more money

- means significantly diminishing return.


Include people with disabilities

• “We are all only temporarily able-bodied.

Accessibility is good for us all.”

• Know the law, build for the spirit of accessibility

– U.S. Section 508 - https://www.section508.gov/content/learn

– WCAG 2.0 - https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

-@mollydotcom at #stirtrek 2011 via @carologic #a11y

https://www.section508.gov/content/learn

https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php


Many ways to test

• Online software

– UserTesting.com (un-moderated)

– Web Meeting (moderated)

• In Person (moderated)

• Moderated is better to get to “why”

• Unmoderated is great for quick answers


Regular Testing

(Yes, this is an old idea; a great one!)


“Teams should stretch

to get work into that day’s test

and use the cadence to drive

productivity.”

Jeff Gothelf http://blog.usabilla.com/5-effective-ways-for-usability-testing-to-play-nice-with-agile/

http://blog.usabilla.com/5-effective-ways-for-usability-testing-to-play-nice-with-agile/


Test whatever is ready…

• Concepts, rough ideas, brainstorming

• Work in Progress

• Prototypes - make to learn

– Clickable (Axure, Balsamiq – code is optional)

• Websites, mobile, products, services

• Competing designs (A/B testing)

• Comparative studies

• Conduct user research


Be an Active Observer

• Offer to greet participants (in person)

• Help operate software/recording equipment

• Take notes

• Share your notes


Board/Flip Chart Notes - look for Patterns

Issue P1 P2 P3

Search Used Yes No No

Widget 1 Used N/A Used –unsure about

Task 1 Notes 3 – easy 2 – needed help

3 – easy

Task 2 Notes 2 – needed help

2 – easy 2 – needed help


3 – easy Ran out of time


3 – easy Ran out of time


Make Useful & Usable

Recommendations - Quickly


True Statements

• All interfaces have usability problems

• Limited resources to fix them

• More problems than resources

• Less serious problems distract

• Intense focus on fixing most serious problems first

Adapted from: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide

to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems. By Steve Krug


Don’t support tree killers

Image of stack of paper:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stack_of_Copy_Paper.jpg

X Marks the Spot https://openclipart.org/detail/193050/x-marks-the-spot

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stack_of_Copy_Paper.jpg

https://openclipart.org/detail/193050/x-marks-the-spot


Make users visible

• Everyone understand user

needs

• Solve problems in the

simplest ways

• Encourage collaborations

• Think ahead


Contact Carol Smith

in/CarolJSmith

@Carologic

slideshare.net/carologic


Resources, References, etc.

making faster ux in an agile world - hoapitt 2017

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