There is a common misconception that User Experience (UX) work will slow Agile down. In this session Carol Smith (@carologic) will dispel this theory by sharing her experiences, and the best practices that she has collected through her own work, as well as through attending training and workshops with advanced UX/Agile practitioners. This presentation will include discussions of how to successfully embed the UX team; the pros and cons of Agile projects; and the UX team’s responsibilities with regard to prioritization of work. Finally, Carol will discuss best practices and several successful ways to integrate usability testing methods across iterations.

1. Presented by Carol Smith - @Carologic
Cleveland Web SIG
May 2014

2. Select Clients & Employers
Education
Confidential. All Rights Reserved.

3. Supports people
who research, design, and evaluate
the user experience of products and services.
www.uxpa.org

4. "The biggest waste of all
is building something
no one wants“
- Eric Ries @ericries
Eric Ries @ericries via @MelBugai on Twitter at
LeanStartupMI in 2011

5. Create a great,
usable, accessible,
and relevant experience

6. Not a specific set of tools
Not a specific method: scrum, kanban, etc.
Agile is a Process

7. http://agilemanifesto.org/

8. UX: Shared Values – Shifted Interpretation
• Individuals and interactions
• Customer is not user in Agile
• Working software - speed
• Collaboration
• Responding to change
• Iterations
• Changes in technology

9. UX + Agile by Jim Laing, UX Pittsburgh, 6 May 2014

10. Constant Improvement
Not the way it’s always been

11. UX & Agile in Practice

12. Backlog

13. Requirements: Multiple Sources
• UX team, users • Business Analysts and
stakeholders
Epics
Story Story Story
VOC
Marketing
Stakeholders
Interviews & Observations
Web Analytics
Usability Testing
Customer Feedback

14. UX in Prioritization Meetings
• Discuss new issues and existing ones
• Kill bad ideas early
• Negotiate on behalf of the users
• Internal users (CMS, etc.)
• Customers
• Balance user needs with business needs
• Consider what is possible within the sprint

15. Preparation – Not BUFD

16. Sprint 0 - Research
• Understand users to make a great design
• How much?
• What is being developed?
• What do you know?
• What questions are still open?
• Long Sprint 0 or many sprints?

17. Information Radiators
• Sharing of information
• Mental Models
• Inform Personas
• Walls, Confluence, JIRA, Hipchat, etc.

18. Paper, Clickable or Code?
• Start with paper
• Wireframes
• Clickable prototypes (Axure)
• Throwaway HTML Prototype

19. Wireframes & Comps
• Development for Sprint 1 and 2 if possible
• Wireframes for nearly all pages/interactions
• Comps (colors, fonts) when needed
• New pages/templates
• Complex interactions
• New graphics/design

20. Style Guides and Standards
• Speed up the work
• Less questions on implementation
• Allow dev to go with what they already know

21. Sprints

22. Integrating with Agile
Sprint0
User
Research
Design
for S1
Sprint1
UR for S3
D for S2
Sprint2
UR for S4
D for S3
Usability
Test
Sprint3
UR for S5
D for S4
U Test
Sprint0
Sprint
Planning
Sprint1
Dev
Sprint2
Dev
Sprint3
Dev
Increased understanding of Users
DevUX

23. UX and Agile in Practice
Increased Understanding of Users
Persona Development
User
Observations
SurveyInterviews
Sprint0
Sprint1
Sprint2
Sprint3
Sprint4
Sprint5
Sprint6
BA
Sprint0
Sprint1
Sprint2
Sprint3
Sprint4
Sprint5
Sprint6
UXDev
Sprint0
Sprint1
Sprint2
Sprint3
Sprint4
Sprint5
Sprint6
Sprint
Plan
Epics &
Stories

24. UX Tandem Team
• Team 1
• Discovery for future sprints
• Prototype and validate
• Feasible? Desirable? Valuable? (Kill ideas that are not)
• Good ideas go into Dev
• Team 2
• Work on good ideas they worked on in Discovery
• Complete: go into Discovery again or prepare and run
usability test
Sprint0
Team 1:
Discovery
Team 2:
Discovery
Sprint1
Team 1:
Support Dev
Team 2:
Discovery
Sprint2
Team 1:
Support Dev
Team 2:
Usability
Test

25. Testing Methods

26. Any Method Can be Adapted
• Quick
• Bare minimum of effort
• Get needed feedback
• Provide recommendations
• Repeatable

27. Materials to Test
• Paper
• Complex to test – participants may misunderstand
• Guerilla / hallway test
• Wireframes
• Can easily change
• Clickable prototypes (PowerPoint, Visio, Axure)
• Easier to understand
• Throwaway HTML Prototype
• Real Code
• Great if it’s the right solution

28. Scope Effort
• Consider budget, resources
• Time
• Recruiting
• Facilitating
• Analyzing
• Adding participants increases budget & time

29. Traditional Usability Testing
• In-Person or remote
• Less users, shorter sessions
• Analyze at lunch
• 3 or more users
• Half hour to 1 hour each

30. RITE

31. Rapid Iterative Testing & Evaluation (RITE)
• Qualitative user feedback
• actions + comments
• Series of small usability tests
• 3 participants each day
• Minimum of 3 days of testing
• Iteration between testing days
• Total of 5 days

32. RITE Process
Test Update Test
1
2
3
High
Medium
Low
Priority
& Level
of Effort
32

33. Recap Sessions
• End of each day - after the last session
• Room with a whiteboard
• About 30 minutes
• Discuss:
• trends seen
• concerns
• recommendations
• prioritize changes for the next round
• list lower priority changes for future iterations
33

34. RITE Results
• Final prototype
• Vetted with users
• Base for recommendations
• Light Report: “Caterpillar to Butterfly”
• Screenshots show progressions
• What changes were made and why

35. What Works for RITE
• Best used early in project lifecycle
• Early concepts
• Need to be vetted with users
• Can assist in quickly shaping designs
35

36. Regular Testing
• Reduce waiting for
recruitment
• Once per sprint or every
few sprints
• Same day mid-week (not
Monday or Friday)

37. Why Regular?
• Team becomes:
• accustomed to steady stream of qualitative insight
• insight ensures quick decisions…line up with business and
user goals
Adapted from Jeff Gothelf - http://blog.usabilla.com/5-
effective-ways-for-usability-testing-to-play-nice-with-agile/

38. “Teams should stretch to
get work into that day’s
test and use the cadence
to drive productivity.”
- Jeff Gothelf
Jeff Gothelf - http://blog.usabilla.com/5-effective-ways-
for-usability-testing-to-play-nice-with-agile/

39. User Testing Day!
• Make team aware
• Invite everyone
• Watch remotely
• Recurring meeting invites for stakeholders

40. 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

41. Make Useful & Usable
Recommendations -
Quickly

42. Goal
• Identify top 5 or 10 most serious issues
• Top 3 from each list
• Prioritize from lists
• Commit resources for next sprint
• Stop (no report!)
• Communicate what is needed
• How will it be used?
Adapted from: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself
Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems. By Steve Krug

43. Tweak, Don’t Redesign
• Small iterative changes
• Make it better now
• Don’t break something else
• Take something away
• Reduce distractions
• Don’t add – question it
Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide
to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems. By Steve Krug

44. Discussion

45. What is post-Agile?
• It’s not perfect
• Hard to implement 100%
• Some planning is always necessary
• Complex, critical interactions require waterfall style
planning

46. Contact
carologic@gmail.com
slideshare.net/carologic
@Carologic

47. Recommended Readings
4

48. References
• Albert, Bill, Tom Tullis, and Donna Tedesco. Beyond the Usability Lab.
• Cooper, Alan. The Inmates are Running the Asylum
• Goodwin, Kim. Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered
Products and Services
• Gothelf , Jeff. http://blog.usabilla.com/5-effective-ways-for-usability-testing-to-
play-nice-with-agile/
• Henry, S.L. and Martinson, M. Evaluating for Accessibility, Usability Testing in
Diverse Situations. Tutorial, 2003 UPA Conference.
• Krug, Steve. Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding
and Fixing Usability Problems.
• Kuniavsky, Mike. Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User
Research
• Mulder, Steve. The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and
Using Personas for the Web
• Rubin, Jeffrey and Dana Chisnell. Handbook of Usability Testing: How to
Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.