Cooper Journal: Blending Agile and UCD at CHIFOO

Blending Agile and UCD at CHIFOO

by Lane Halley on May 20, 2009 | Comments (0)

The Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO) hosted Lane Halley and Jeff Patton for a talk and workshop on blending agile practices and user-centered design. On Wednesday night, May 6th, Lane and Jeff presented a talk titled “Making Sense of User-Centered Design and Agile.” Thursday, May 7th, Lane and Jeff taught a full-day workshop titled “All Together Now: Blending Interaction Design and Agile Development Techniques.”

The slides from the May 6th talk are available on SlideShare. Pictures of the May 7th workshop are available on Flickr.

In the talk May 6th, Jeff and Lane provided a brief history of agile, discussed some challenges to blending UCD and agile, and shared some of the emerging best practices.

In the workshop May 7th, Lane and Jeff introduced participants to some of the challenges involved in bringing User Experience (UX) techniques into an agile project. Then, we formed smaller groups to explore an "Agile/UX toolbox" of techniques that support collaboration, visibility and iteration:

Understanding users
Sensemaking
Developing a product concept
Translating a concept into a plan
Sketching and iteration

By the end of the day, workshop participants gained hands-on experience with UX techniques they can use to help their agile teams think about users, create product concepts and communicate about design in an agile way.

Thanks to the folks at CHIFOO for hosting a great event, and thanks to everyone who attended!

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