Process: Agile UX

Designing minimum viable products (MVPs) has always intrigued me. Fast timelines, tighter budgets, clearer outcomes, and the constant pressure to build something that stands out in the marketplace create a uniquely challenging work environment. At the same time, those very constraints often spark innovation and open the door to new ideas that teams might not otherwise explore.

At Talentica Software, we have built a lot of MVPs. Our design and development process followed a predictable rhythm, with a schedule of 90 days to launch, including roughly 30 days for a well-defined UX design process. During this process, teams were clear about the trade-offs; stakeholders accepted the pace; and UX designers carefully balanced research depth and the pressure to ship.

Now, with artificial intelligence (AI), the entire UX lifecycle has changed. No one is debating whether AI is influencing User Experience. The focus is more on adapting, then witnessing how AI is imagining, validating and building MVPs. In this article, I’ll discuss three key shifts that have made the acceleration of MVP development and design possible. Read More

“It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.”—Jonathan Ive, Chief Design Officer, Apple

Deciding on the right product-development process for your team can often be a paradox. Maintaining balance amidst a proliferation of inconsistencies in product requirements and development outcomes is challenging for both large and mid-sized organizations —especially when teams lack any metrics to measure their impact on a release.

Friction arises when there is a mismatch between the user’s mental model and product features. When a development team finds itself in an untenable situation, the blame game begins. But as Mad Men’s Don Draper often said, “Move forward.” Read More

This is a sample chapter from the 4th Edition of About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin, and Christopher Noessel.

Chapter 6: Creative Teamwork

In the Introduction to this book, we described the Goal-Directed method as consisting of three p’s: principles, patterns, and processes. However, there’s a fourth p worth mentioning—practices. This book mostly concerns itself with the first three, but in this chapter we’d like to share a few thoughts about the practice of Goal-Directed design and how design teams integrate into the larger product team. Read More