Harri Kiljander discusses best practices for integrating user experience (UX) design work with agile software development. Some key points include: (1) Assigning UX designers to scrum teams to work collaboratively with developers; (2) Treating UX design like architecture work by planning ahead but iteratively; (3) Establishing continuous user testing. Other tips include using appropriate prototyping levels, defining "Done" to include UX, and emphasizing that end users rather than other roles should be prioritized. Jeff Patton also outlines 12 practices for UX in agile environments such as driving UX participation, chunking design work, and continuous validation.

1. How to Deliver
a Good User Experience
through Agile?
Harri Kiljander
Director User Experience Design
Nokia Maemo
Scan-Agile 15-Oct-2009

2. What are UX and Maemo, and who am I?
User experience (UX) is a term used to
describe the overall experience and
satisfaction a user has when using a
product or system. Loosely defined, UX
culminates the following into one field:
ü Information architecture
ü Interaction design
ü Usability
ü Human computer interaction
ü Human factors engineering
ü User interface design
Maemo is the software platform powering
Nokia’s internet tablets and mobile computers, such as the new N900.
Harri Kiljander is
leading UX design
in Maemo Devices
unit of Nokia
ü Computer scientist who
went into HCI
ü Designer of Nokia’s S40
and S60 UIs, 10+ years
ago
ü Co-editor of “Mobile
Usability” book
ü Fascinated and perplexed
by agile philosophy

3. Talking points
The
GoodWhy
does UX
matter?
Maemo UX
development
context
UX design
philosophy
Legacy
way of UX
development
Why
should we
fix it?
Manifesto
for Agile
UX Design
Rolling
in agile UX
design in
Maemo
The Bad,
and
the UglyWhat
do others
say?
Discussion

4. Why does user experience matter?
People will pay more for
an amazing experience
People will
recommend your
product
Job satisfaction
is improved
People will
come back
Technology alone
is hygiene
Productivity
gains
People will use the
product more
Feature set is
hygiene
Less need
for user
support
BusinessTechnology
User experience

5. Maemo user experience development context
ü Creating consumer products
ü Embedded software development concurrent with device
development
ü Organization being built
ü Multi-project, multi-site, multi-timezone environment
ü Several people and process cultures
ü Open source software
ü Earlier agile experience varies
ü Earlier UX design in waterfallish mode
ü Parallel development of UI framework and applications
ü New software technologies applied
ü Internet service development synchronized with device creation
ü High expectations from top management

7. User Experience Design is the art and science of
integrating all of the various elements that comprise
an interactive system so that
1. The user’s needs, limitations, goals, desires, and
expectations are served
2. The developing organization’s objectives are served as a
result of serving the user’s (#1)
3. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Michael Cummings, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License

8. Legacy way of UX development
ü UX design is black box, or ivory
tower, or at least the UX designers
have their heads in the clouds
ü Deliverables often textual UX
specifications or detached-from-
implementation-reality glossy UX
prototypes
ü Longer feature list is better
ü Reactive user testing often has little
chance to influence final deliverable
ü Lipstick on a pig // “hey, we are
shipping in two weeks – we need to
add some usability”

9. Why should we fix it?
ü UX is key selling point
ü “Works as specified” is no longer
enough
ü Modern feature-rich interactive
products and services cannot be pre-
specified
ü SW and HW architecture does not
allow major last-minute fixes
ü HW and SW performance is not known
in advance
ü UX designers get frustrated
ü SW developers get frustrated
ü Sales people get frustrated
ü Top management get …

10. Manifesto for Agile UX Design
We are uncovering better ways of designing user experience by
doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come
to value:
Collaborative, proactive human-centric design
over last-minute validation
Desirable design over documentation
Fewer and better features over more features
That is, while there is value in the items on the right,
we value the items on the left more.
Formulated in a workshop with Maemo and Symbian UX designers and Alistair Cockburn, Nov-2007

11. ü Started in early 2008
ü 50 UX practitioners assigned to 20 agile SW projects
ü Full-time and shared UX practitioners in SCRUM
teams
ü UX product owners, Interaction designers, Visual
designers, Usability engineers
ü Most often UX practitioner co-located on the same
site with SW development team
ü Forward-looking UX conceptual design done in
2-week SPRINTs, all UX designers participate in
these in a round-robin fashion
Rolling in agile UX design in Maemo

12. The Bad, and the Ugly
ü No readily available agile methods and cookbooks to link UX
design with SW development
ü Some SCRUM teams expect UX design to continue working as
black box and to hand off a complete UX specification
ü Individual, productive SCRUM teams can be ramped up relatively
easily, but running an effective and efficient multi-project R&D
program remains a challenge
ü Big rocks should be turned first, in UX architecture just
as in SW architecture
ü Interpretations of Definition of Done vary
ü Agile still does not mean that there is no planning
ü My agile vs. your agile, linked with open source culture

13. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
1) Assign UX designers to work in SCRUM teams
ü Individual UX designers are assigned to individual SCRUM teams
ü Centralized UX design function ensures design consistency and
quality
ü Special attention to shared resource allocation and information
flow
ü Co-locate the cross-disciplinary teams

14. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
2) Treat UX design like architecture development
ü Big rocks to be turned first
ü User research and conceptual design should proceed one or two
SPRINTs ahead – try to involve the product owners, lead
architects, developers, and testers
ü UX designer working with SW developers – not as a technical
writing or icon production slave but as a product developer peer
ü Enforce UX design consistency throughout the project lifetime
ü UX architecture ~ SW architecture

15. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
3) Establish a continuous user testing and feedback
loop mechanism
ü There is no time in an agile project to start figuring out a user
validation methodology and testing arrangements
ü Get the testing train rolling – there’s always new designs to be
tested
ü Ask, bribe, or force the developers and marketeers to observe
relevant test sessions

16. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
4) User stories and tasks build UX quality
ü Coherent user stories and corresponding tasks leave no holes in
the UX
ü Product owners to be passionate about the user and UX
ü Obviously you have the UX design and user validation tasks are in
the backlogs

17. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
5) Use appropriate levels of UX prototyping fidelity
ü A paper prototype may be built in minutes
ü Wireframes allow the audience to avoid skin-level critique
ü An interactive glossy UX prototype is easily perceived as the real
product
ü Treat UX prototype as specification, or attach it to the backlog

18. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
6) Branch UX marketing artefacts production
ü Someone will request these at some point
ü Dragging a full-time UX designer away from the real development
work is not a good idea
ü Allocate visual designers to a marketing materials development
SPRINT

19. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
7) Definition of Done to acknowledge UX
ü If your product has a UI, your Definition of Done must reflect that
ü UX designer onboard
ü UX design conforms to design guidelines
ü User stories are user stories – not just feature lists renamed
ü Design validation conducted
ü UX design documentation and SPRINT release in synch

20. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
8) Designers are not users, developers are neither,
vice presidents absolutely not
ü Yes, you need all these roles to run the company
ü Users or consumers will eventually pay your salaries anyway
ü Listen to testers and sales people!

21. Best practices to integrate UX work
with agile SW development
1) Assign UX designers to work in SCRUM teams
2) Treat UX design like architecture development
3) Establish a continuous user testing and feedback loop
mechanism
4) User stories and tasks build UX quality
5) Use appropriate levels of UX prototyping fidelity
6) Branch UX marketing artefacts production
7) Definition of Done to acknowledge UX
8) Designers are not users, developers are neither,
vice presidents absolutely not

22. What do others say?
Jeff Patton: 12 Best Practices for UX in an Agile Environment
1) Drive: UX practitioners are part of the customer or product owner team
2) Research, model, and design up front - but only just enough
3) Chunk your design work
4) Use parallel track development to work ahead and follow behind
5) Buy design time with complex engineering stories
6) Cultivate a user validation group for use for continuous user validation
7) Schedule continuous user research in a separate track from development
8) Leverage user time for multiple activities
9) Use RITE to iterate UI before development
10) Prototype in low fidelity
11) Treat prototype as specification
12) Become a design facilitator
http://www.uie.com/articles/best_practices/
http://www.uie.com/articles/best_practices_part2

23. Thank you!
Harri Kiljander
harri.kiljander@nokia.com
Time for discussion