X U XeXtreme User eXperience
AOTB2013
Mike Rawling
@hedshot@Unrulymedia
How one team melded UX with XP
Mike Rawling
@hedshot@Unrulymedia
Any questions welcome……later, please…
Allowed interruptions*
a) A Zombie Apocalypseb) Nothing.
* Oh, and please set your phones to silent…
MeMike RawlingSenior UX Engineer @Unruly Media, at London HQ
UX engineering history dates back to 1998…
…Consulting, designing, engineering, leading, coaching, training….
Teams and initiatives for Tesco, Wiley, Camelot, Konami, LoveFilm and Granada and ITV
Also at Agile Cambridge, 25/9/2013
Engaging with UX Nurturing empathy ..What? with a pencil???
kinky! Making and keeping it real Finding stuff out Some other working
practices
Themes
About Unruly MediaUnrulymedia.com
About Unruly Media
Unrulymedia.comabout Unruly Media
3 development teams:
each consisting of about about 4 XP, java-centric, stupidly intelligent programmers
team has greatly varying levels of experience and interests
Extremely varied experience of customer facing front-end
1 UX guy
Unrulymedia.comDev@Unruly Media
Unruly Analyticsprovides the datathat proves the ROI
o Be inspired. Get real-time access to share of voice data for your video content across the social web. Identify trends and learn about what consumers are sharing.
o See the bigger picture. Know the true social reach of your campaign by tracking official, unofficial and derivative copies across social media platforms.
o Prove it works. Measure your Social ROI against historical brand performance and benchmarked competitors.
about the product
Unruly Mediaour dev area:
and the real project challenges…
Unruly Analytics Offer insight into social media performance
Teach about social media and video - and visual analytics!
User base has a *great* variety of users with…
…equally varied understanding of statistical analysis
…To do so Elegantly!
Committed to XP principles
Adventurous Spirit
The CEO said: ‘Do Lean Start-up’…
…I heard ‘Try Lean UX...’
The project’s philosophy…
engaging with user experience
engaging with uxchallenges
There are Classic challenges with UX + Agile…and some most particular to XP:
Differences between Agile and UCD Agile accentuates acceptance and unit testing –
where does usability testing fit in to that? XP criticised for ‘being light on user side of
software’ and ‘best used with non-GUI intensive applications’
Lacking explicitly defined processes defining requirements engineering, interaction design, etc.
engaging with ux
posters and evangelism
engaging with ux
engaging with ux
doing intros, tech talks & coaching
engaging with ux
engaging with ux
a UX Wall
engaging with ux
engaging more closely with testing
engaging with ux
user interview script templates for anyone to use
engaging with ux
nurturing user empathy
nurturing empathy
Challenge: creating a bridge between team and users
Polarised argument: Do I choose personas? Abso-f-lutely!
nurturing empathy
nurturing empathy
Personas workshops
nurturing empathy
nurturing empathy
Personas: poster-ised
nurturing empathy
Persona-centric / named stories
nurturing empathy
As {persona name} I would like to…so that…
nurturing empathy
Persona ‘stickers’ on story cards
nurturing empathy
“You want me to do what with a pencil?”
or…
Visualising the product
UI, UX & Interaction guidelines
documentation (*gasp*)
Can’t draw, won’t draw (Programmer…) “I can’t draw – let alone ‘design’!” “design is fluffy!” “designers don’t know sh*t” “I’m not a designer” “wtf?”
Later… “…but that’s not the best design” “..I won’t do it like that…” “that’s just too
wacky/unusable/unusual/custom/etc…”
“I could do better…”
“I can’t draw”
visualising the product
Visualising interfaces
visualising the product
The Dark Secret Of Interaction Design
Enter: Design Charrettes*!!
Allegedly based regular critiques at an art academy in Paris – possibly Beaux arts(also called ‘Design Studio’)
About regular ‘Critiques’
Students race to finish…
Useful and effect urgency in the process!
*Since then documented in Lean UX, by Jeff Gotthelf
visualising the product
Design Charrettes are…
Select an Epic feature to attack
Review Personas and each pick one
Then…as Pairs we…:
① Brainstorm single, key features that persona might need and want
② gather and share – pick top results
③ then pairs pick a favorite ideas and sketch 5 UI ideas for them in 5 minutes
④ gather and share – pick our favorite sketches
⑤ then pairs pick a favorite sketch and sketch a complete UI or wider flow
⑥ gather and share – The whole group chooses result!
visualising the product
Step one examples:
visualising the product
visualising the product
Design charrettes: amazing results ensue!
visualising the product
Visualising interfaces
Physical storyboarding…
visualising the product
Visualising interfaces
New technique: ‘physical user flows’:
visualising the product
visualising the product
Physical user flows
making and keeping it real:
new ways of prototyping
Making it real……and Keeping It Real
“Prototyping: where the wheels touch down on the tarmac”
Super-Lo-Res Prototypingmaking it real…
Lots of sketching > prototyping:
making it real…
Making it real
Functioning wireframes as prototypes
making it real…
Making it real
Good, bad, ugly of this approach…
making it real…
Finding stuff out: research
ux research
The challenges
I can’t research all possible (agile) futures
Fast turn around times!
I really don’t want to hold anyone up / be a blocker
B2B context is uniquely challenging
Remote, unmoderated user testing tools
ux research
research
Micro surveys and feedback
ux research
research
ux research
working practices
working practices
Challenges…
working practices
working practices*Humour…*
Super-huddles, Pairing and even Tripling
+
+ +
+ +
+
working practices
UX & project sponsor pairing (e.g. our CEO)
+
+
working practices
UI Squad: UX, Sponsor and Product Manager
+ +
working practices
what really worked? Results??
engaging with ux
Ongoing! The fun continues…
tricky to identify and measure success criteria? There is much discussion about UX now The CEO refers to personae in slide shows! UX even crept into team members LinkedIn CVs…!
Conclusion: we’ve started on quite a long journey together with clear momentum but still much unlearning and new skills to pick up
“CEO refers to ‘customer related stuff’ using the term ‘personae’ now!”
So! What next???
what next??Never stop refining
– find what works for you
*Really* magnetic personas!
what next??
Stop Press: it’s the UX Headlines!
what next??
The Weekly Google Analyst
what next??
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Q&A
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Any questions?
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Thanks for listening!Still hungry? Contact me…
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[email protected]@hedshot