Process: Requirements Definition

Many organizations are moving from waterfall to agile software development methods. They often combine this shift with a move to user-centered design (UCD). This makes sense because, in addition to bringing great intrinsic benefits, UCD has a lot in common with agile. Both encourage a multidisciplinary approach, are iterative, encourage feedback, discourage bloated and overly rigid documentation, and value people over processes. However, the combination of agile and UCD all too often leads to UX design becoming the main blocker in the development process. Why is this?

The Problem

A key reason for using agile methods is to improve development speed. Agile achieves its speed in a number of ways, but key among these is breaking the development process down into lots of short, sharp, sprints of the same length—typically, just two to six weeks—that have clear goals—for example, get the search feature working. In many ways, these sprints are like a relentless code production line and, as with any production line, stopping it unnecessarily is a cardinal sin. Read More

In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our expert panel discusses two topics:

• defining clear product requirements
• reviewing design solutions from different viewpoints

Our experts first discuss how to elicit clear product requirements from stakeholders. Does the right approach differ for small versus large companies? Do product requirements capture the goals of stakeholders? Do requirements reflect the true needs of users? Do they establish a good understanding of technical constraints? How can you validate the assumptions behind product requirements? What kinds of research should influence the definition of product requirements? How should you balance the needs of users versus the business?

Then, our expert panel considers some different viewpoints from which we can review design solutions: stakeholders’ business goals, the needs of users in various roles, and the feasibility or ease of implementation. On the other hand, focusing on one particular user’s needs during a design review can yield a greater number of insights. Considering different user-interface layers lets you structure your evaluation of a design solution. Plus, it’s important to consider the effectiveness of design artifacts as well. Read More

I often reflect on how privileged I am to be in the field of user experience, because we always have the trump card: the user. Let me explain. As UX professionals, we generally have an abundant breadth of experience across different industries and businesses. Our clients, on the other hand, have great depth of knowledge in their own domain. However, only users themselves can intimately appreciate their own needs, and user experience is the only field that considers the user’s perspective at every stage of a project.

Why is this such an awesome novelty? Read More