Managing User-Centered Design Activities in Distributed Agile Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sultan Alyahya ◽  
Ohoud Almughram
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Design ◽  
Agile Development ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Development Teams ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
User Centered

Abstract The integration of user-centered design (UCD) activities into agile information systems development has become more popular recently. Despite the fact that there are many ways the merging of UCD activities into agile development can be carried out, it has been widely recognized that coordinating design activities with development activities is one of the most common problems, especially in distributed environments where designers, developers and users are spread over several sites. The main approach to coordinate UCD activities with distributed agile development is the use of informal methods (e.g. communication through using video conference tools). In addition to the temporal, geographical and socio-cultural barriers associated with this type of methods, a major limitation is a lack of awareness of how UCD activities and development activities affect each other. Furthermore, some agile project management tools are integrated with design platforms but fail to provide the necessary coordination that helps team members understand how the design and development activities affect their daily work. This research aims to support the effective management of integrating UCD activities into distributed agile development by (i) identifying the key activity dependencies between UX design teams and development teams during distributed UCD/agile development and (ii) designing a computer-based system to provide coordination support through managing these activity dependencies. In order to achieve these objectives, two case studies are carried out. Our findings revealed 10 main dependencies between UCD design teams and development teams as shown by six types of activity. In addition, the participatory design approach shows that developing a computer-based system to manage seven of these selected dependencies is achievable.

scholarly journals A User-centered Design Process of an mHealth Application for Health Professionals: A Case Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amarasinghe Arachchige Don Nalin Samandi Saparamadu ◽  
Piyum Fernando ◽  
Peizi Zeng ◽  
Wee Meng Henry Teo ◽  
Xi Tian Andrew Goh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Information Architecture ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Application Design ◽  
User Centered

BACKGROUND User-centered design processes are less frequently employed and not fully explored for building mHealth applications that are particularly targeted to health professionals as end-users. Authors have used a user-centered design-based approach to build an mHealth application for health professionals, tasked to deliver medical laboratory related information on a daily basis. OBJECTIVE Our objective is to generate a simple and functional user-centered design process for mHealth applications for health professionals. This paper presents the key learnings from design activities. METHODS A stratified random sample of doctors and nurses was recruited for the study. The design activities were planned in the following sequence: focus group discussion for situation analysis and information architecture, design activity 1 for wireframe designing, design activity 2 for wireframe testing, and user testing sessions 1 and 2. RESULTS The final design and functions of the application, information architecture and interactive elements were largely influenced by the participatory design-based user-centered design activities. As a result of the design process we could identify the mental models of processing requests for information and personal preferences based on the experience. These findings were directly or indirectly incorporated into the application design. Furthermore, finding alternative ways of working within time constraints and cultural barriers, and the methods employed to manage the challenges of interdisciplinary discourse stood out amongst the lessons learnt. CONCLUSIONS We recommend a user-centered design process, based on a participatory design approach in mHealth application design, enriched with focus group discussions where possible. CLINICALTRIAL

scholarly journals A study of the role of user-centered design methods in design team projects

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Lai ◽  
Tomonori Honda ◽  
Maria C. Yang
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Process And Outcome ◽  
Iterative Evaluation ◽  
User Centered

AbstractUser-centered approaches to design can guide teams toward an understanding of users and aid teams in better posing design problems. This paper investigates the role of user-centered design approaches in design process and outcome within the context of design team projects. The value of interaction with users is examined at several stages throughout the design process. The influence of user-centered design on the performance of design teams is also explored. Results suggest that the quantity of interactions with users and time spent interacting with users alone is not linked with better design outcome, but that iterative evaluation of concepts by users may be of particular value to design prototypes. Suggestions are made based on the reflections from the authors after conducting this study.

Combination of Agile Development and User Centered Design to Improve the Usability of a Beef-Cattle Farm Simulator

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 3385-3392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Arroqui ◽  
Pablo Mangudo ◽  
Lucas Pelliza ◽  
Santiago Murgolo ◽  
Andre Ottonello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Beef Cattle ◽  
Agile Development ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Cattle Farm ◽  
User Centered

Lessons Learned from Integrating User-Centered Design into a Large-Scale Defense Procurement

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (23) ◽  
pp. 2041-2044
Author(s):  
Christine C. Tate ◽  
Todd Estes ◽  
John Hagan ◽  
Larry Hettinger
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Defense Procurement ◽  
The Us ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Human Systems Integration ◽  
Surface Combatant ◽  
User Centered

The US Navy is currently implementing “optimal manning” approaches to the design of future warships. Simply put, this emphasis takes the form of designing and deploying ships whose blend of human and mechanical/computer-based systems reduces the need for traditionally large crews while improving overall system performance and safety. Reflecting this emphasis, a Future Surface Combatant program currently in the design stage is the first Navy procurement in which the principles of user-centered design (UCD) and human-systems integration (HSI) are key design drivers. The integration of UCD and HSI methods has never been attempted in a design effort of this magnitude, and has inevitably led to illuminating insights on the part of human factors, system engineering, and other disciplines engaged in the effort. This paper provides an overview of “lessons learned,” and is intended to assist the future integration of UCD and HSI principles into the design of similarly complex systems.

scholarly journals A Randomized Trial Comparing Classical Participatory Design to VandAID, an Interactive CrowdSourcing Platform to Facilitate User-centered Design

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (05) ◽  
pp. 344-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Koch ◽  
Kim M. Unertl ◽  
Christoph U. Lehmann ◽  
Kevin R. Dufendach
Keyword(s):  
User Interface ◽  
Randomized Trial ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
End Users ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Centered Design ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Impact ◽  
User Centered

Summary Background: Early involvement of stakeholders in the design of medical software is particularly important due to the need to incorporate complex knowledge and actions associated with clinical work. Standard user-centered design methods include focus groups and participatory design sessions with individual stakeholders, which generally limit user involvement to a small number of individuals due to the significant time investments from designers and end users. Objectives: The goal of this project was to reduce the effort for end users to participate in co-design of a software user interface by developing an interactive web-based crowd- sourcing platform. Methods: In a randomized trial, we compared a new web-based crowdsourcing platform to standard participatory design sessions. We developed an interactive, modular platform that allows responsive remote customization and design feedback on a visual user interface based on user preferences. The responsive canvas is a dynamic HTML template that responds in real time to user preference selections. Upon completion, the design team can view the user’s interface creations through an administrator portal and download the structured selections through a REDCap interface. Results: We have created a software platform that allows users to customize a user interface and see the results of that customization in real time, receiving immediate feedback on the impact of their design choices. Neonatal clinicians used the new platform to successfully design and customize a neonatal handoff tool. They received no specific instruction and yet were able to use the software easily and reported high usability. Conclusions: VandAID, a new web-based crowdsourcing platform, can involve multiple users in user-centered design simultaneously and provides means of obtaining design feedback remotely. The software can provide design feedback at any stage in the design process, but it will be of greatest utility for specifying user requirements and evaluating iterative designs with multiple options.

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