Comments on: Designers, meet Agile

By: Agile, scrum, sore legs from sprinting | Avangelist Design

Agile, scrum, sore legs from sprinting | Avangelist Design — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:22:53 +0000

[...] http://johnnyholland.org/2010/03/15/designers-meet-agile/ [...]

By: Agile Design en Scrum in de praktijk | Frankwatching

Agile Design en Scrum in de praktijk | Frankwatching — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:46:03 +0000

[...] waarbij ontwikkeling volgt op het ontwerp. Velen, zoals David Farkas, Jonathan Arnowitz en Marc Sasinski berusten daarom in een subtiele scheiding van User Experience Design en Agile [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:20:40 +0000

You might be interested in a paper we wrote to accompany a presentation to the Agile 2009 conference about doing design research in unpredictable, fast changing situations, “Improving the Obama campaign software by learning from users”

You can read a description and download the paper here:
http://bit.ly/bhozdz

By: Weekly Roundup: Design Related Links #11 « Discovery Session… by Gerard Dolan

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:58:15 +0000

[...] Designers, meet Agile [...]

By: Social Networks Finding Their Enterprise Niche

Social Networks Finding Their Enterprise Niche — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:47:53 +0000

[...] Johnny Holland – It's all about interaction » B… [...]

By: User Experience, Usability and Design links for March 17th | BlobFisk.com

User Experience, Usability and Design links for March 17th | BlobFisk.com — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:04:17 +0000

[...] Designers, meet AgileAs an interaction designer working in an Agile environment, I’ve recently been asked by several colleagues in non-Agile arenas – folks in agency settings, consultancies, or in-house software companies – what it’s really like in terms of design workflow and output. Their questions have touched on everything from the day-to-day differences to the quality of the designs coming out of the process, and their perspectives have ranged from casual-and-curious, to scared-and-skeptical (e.g., “Oh, it’s just a fad” and “There’s that vast Agile agenda again.”) [...]

By: Videogames See Social Networks As Growth Engine | Foilball.com

Videogames See Social Networks As Growth Engine | Foilball.com — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:02:12 +0000

[...] Johnny Holland – It's all about interaction » Blog Archive » Designers, meet A… [...]

By: links for 2010-03-16 « burningCat

links for 2010-03-16 « burningCat — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:06:21 +0000

[...] Designers, meet Agile (tags: agile design ux process webdesign twitter web) [...]

By: TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter

TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:26:27 +0000

[...] Tweets about this great post on TwittLink.com [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:26:26 +0000

“designers working in Agile need to be well-versed in communicating the business value of good design. Making business folks and developers understand why user experience matters is critical to the success of your product in this environment and it’s a never-ending crusade.”

I totally agree with this. One thing that isn’t often brought up in the context of Agile is that the process is designed to give developers more autonomy and control over projects. This is why Agile processes aren’t used in open source projects–the development team is already in full control of the project, so there’s no need for it.

This is a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Designers are dealing with a project that’s driven by individuals who don’t understand the value of design, so they end up in a disempowered facilitator or consultant role. We make suggestions and recommendations, but we’re not in a position to get them implemented and into the product, and are somewhat at the mercy of the development team and how much they appreciate our work.

For designers, developer-centered processes is a step backwards from a business-centered process. We know how to influence business people by demonstrating how good UX supports business goals, but it’s not clear how to influence developers. It seems like their main goal is to operate more independently from non-developer teams, and telling them they can’t do it without the UX team is exactly what they don’t want to hear.