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I’ve posted about Agile previously, but each time it has been generalized reviews of the practice. So I decided it was time to really get into the nitty-gritty of what it means to practice user experience in an Agile environment. There are some great resources out there on the subject, some of which I have listed below in my references which I recommend.

So we have a good idea what agile is, where it came from and definitely why developers like it. So how do we fit UX into the mix? I started by listing out some of the great benefits of UX that I needed to make sure weren’t left out. Some of these items were:

• Getting in front of projects and designing before production
• User research, feedback and usability tests on the product
• Time for iterations in design, based on changing requirements and research
• A means to support multiple projects with limited resources
• Time to gather all the necessary details and look at the project as a whole

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There are many types of design methodologies: Behavior-Centered Design, Task-Centered Design, Goal-Directed Design, etc. However the two most popular methods are User-Centered Design and Activity-Centered Design. The key goal of all of these methodologies is to create a usable, efficient, effective design. Each method has its own unique approach for creating the design. (more…)

Why is a user experience team important when developers have been creating usable systems for years? The key to that sentence is your definition of “usable”. Yes, developers do a great job at creating a solid code foundation which is scaleable, and reusable. They also create systems which at some level allow users to complete one or more tasks. However their focus is, as it should be, on the behind-the-scene’s creation instead of getting to know the user base. For example the user’s technical level, and how they can efficiently interact with the presentation layer of the system to easily complete tasks. Sure, they can create a system to be used, but how friendly is it really?

There are many ways to grade the usability of a product and many reasons it is important, not only to the users, but the business as well. For example reducing cost, reducing support and development times, improving user satisfaction, increasing sales and brand recognition, just to name a few. I could go on and on, but that’s another article. So how does this user experience team fit in our current SDLC? (more…)

After much research I have gathered my opinions on the Silverlight vs. Flex argument.

Pro Flex

Silverlight doesn’t have a lot of hope when it comes to Microsoft’s history. Microsoft is known for buying up the market once a technology has become popular, throwing money at development, then slowly diminishing quality and support for their products once the competition is gone. Microsoft is also already well known for their issues with cross-platform compatibility. Their Expressions tool is also not up to par with Adobe’s Design tools, and isn’t even available on a Mac. This immediately limits the majority of designers. Adobes Flash’s platform provides superior animations and graphics for RIAs and Adobe’s Flash player is clearly already well integrated on the majority of systems (currently on 98% of internet enabled desktops). (more…)