Designing the User Experience in an agile context by Johanna Kollmann

NOTE BY THE UNIVERSITY This project report is submitted as an examination paper. No responsibility can be held by London University for the accuracy or completeness of the material therein. ii Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Ann Blandford, whose support and advice considerably contributed to the quality of this thesis. Special thanks go to Helen Sharp, for our interesting discussions and organising the observations, and to Jennifer Ferreira for her feedback on my research. Without my participants, this thesis wouldn't have been possible, so I would like to thank all of them for their help. Interviewing and observing them was not only insightful and interesting, but made me enjoy my research. Finally, my thanks go to my friends and family; especially to all the friends I made at UCLIC, my flatmates Kim and Mark for their support, to my brother Walter for sharing his experiences with qualitative research, and to Marlijn and Sophia for motivating me throughout the last months. iii Abstract With an increasing number of software development projects that follow an agile approach, it becomes more and more important for User Experience (UX) practitioners to understand how user-centred design (UCD) and its techniques can be applied in an agile context. This thesis investigates the UX community's perspective by conducting grounded theory research about the role of UX practitioners on agile projects. The research yielded two themes that are highly relevant: UX practitioners' identity or self-concept and the need to establish, protect and communicate an overall UX vision. The results suggest that UX practitioners working in an agile context, who have a good understanding of its principles, value agile and are aware that an adaptation of UCD practices is required. The analysis highlighted that UX practitioners' self-concept is attached to the integration of the end user, as an understanding of one's users is the basis for designing a good UX. Equally, user research is a core element of the vision theme, facilitating not only the UX vision, but an overall team and product vision shared by all stakeholders. Additionally, the thesis discusses approaches for increasing end user involvement and best practices for bringing UCD and agile together. Open issues and potential challenges are highlighted. This research aspires to offer insight for UX practitioners, provide impulses for researchers and add to the current discussion about how designing the UX is possible in an agile …