[LRUG] Agile and User centred design

[Anthony Green]

An all too familiar story.

I thinks its an area that is only now getting some traction.

There's this presentation from RailsConf Europe:

http://en.oreilly.com/railseurope2008/public/schedule/detail/3537


> On 30 Jan 2009, at 09:58, Beaton, Malcolm wrote:

 
> While I was at my last job, it was quite difficult to get design to
> work in an agile way, both in terms of getting the creative-types to
> work that way, but also the business-heads. I have two theories:
> 
> 1) For the designers, they aren't used to working directly with
> developers and taking feedback while development occurs. I think they
> might be more used to crafting away in Photoshop until their comp
> looks perfect, gets sign-off from the client/customer (see below), and
> then "throwing it over the wall" to development, who have to interpret
> it into HTML/CSS or whatever.
> 
> 2) For the business heads, they don't actually care about development,
> only the end result. And so they get the most immediate satisfaction
> at the point where the designer has finished the comp, and they can
> see their idea realised (with the emphasis, alas, on 'real') in pixel-
> perfect detail. It could be that at this point, the business person
> feels like their idea has been basically finished, and now it only
> needs to be implemented.
> 
> Working in an agile way means delaying decisions until they absolutely
> have to be made, which can be at odds with people who are used to
> seeing very polished graphics before any development starts. It also
> means much more communication and less isolated thinking in business
> or design (or indeed development) silos, which is another disruption
> to typical design and hierarchical workflows.
> 
> Anyway - that's a bit of a rambly response, but hopefully there's
> something useful in it.
> 
> James
> 
> p.s. I'm not sure we ever solved the 'agile design' issue at that
> company, alas :(
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-- 
Anthony Green
Client Side Developer
Future Media & Technology for BBC Audio & Music Interactive



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