The Design Studio: Interface Design for Agile Teams
In this report we describe our experience with the merger of user centered design (UCD) into agile (team) development practice as manifest in a one day design studio. We will walk through our process from the preliminary design research through the conclusion of the day-long workshop that is the design studio by describing those activities in the context of one project. We will follow by enumerating and explaining the benefits we have observed from taking a studio approach to design.
The design studio is an activity that fits well with Agile software development practices and User Centered Design (UCD). This experience report documents the concept of a studio approach to interaction design but in the context of practicing agile UCD. It has been our experience that the design studio helps agile and UCD coexist, making both stronger and more effective. Our ideas are largely based on the experience of our user experience (Ux) team in supporting eight Scrum teams over the course of one year.
A design studio, as we have practiced it, is a fairly simple idea:
- Operating from some common guidelines, participants produce several rough sketch designs.
- Come together and discuss each other’s work.
- Merge ideas to one design concept with which to move forward.
It is a rapid process that allows designers, developers and stakeholders to collaborate and explore design alternatives.
Participants grow their skills by exchanging viewpoints with their peers and openly discussing the strengths and weaknesses of their work. The design is often enriched and strengthened from the feedback.
A design studio as we have practiced it has four main components:
1. Research – the design studio is informed by user research.
2. Design – also known as ‘pre-work’: Many designs and ideas, generated quickly.
3. Studio - A day-long workshop to evaluate alternatives, make decisions, and consolidate to one design.
4. Participants - A team of designers and non-designers who are willing to learn and grow within the design process.
In early 2007 our software engineering organization made the decision to switch from a traditional waterfall development methodology to agile software development using Scrum. Given the challenges of moving design ahead of development under the compressed time frame of Scrum, the design studio seemed a wise choice. Not only does the design studio mandate that the team emerge with a design direction and a deliverable, it does so in the space of one day. In addition, team members gain enough of a shared understanding of the design to begin development, and through their participation in the design studio, take ownership of the product and the design.
We have found that the design studio:
- Facilitates role sharing and knowledge transfer between designers, stakeholders, and engineers
- Offers an alternative way to communicate design research findings
- Allows rapid exploration of design alternatives
- Gets early commitment to design direction
- Gets research and design ahead of development and provides more time for iterative research
- Fosters shared understanding of design vision
- Promotes team cohesiveness
- Provides opportunity for sharing best practices across cultures (design, business, agile development)
The design studio brings the domains of UCD (user centered design) and agile software development together in ways that benefit practitioners of both. We have observed these benefits in the course of daily work and seen the overall quality of our designs improve as understanding of UCD and design best practices spreads among the teams and throughout the organization. We would encourage others attempting to practice UCD in an agile environment to utilize a design studio approach. The adaptations for the UCD practitioner are necessary, and in our case, desirable and beneficial.
Potential References and Citations
[1] Forlizzi, Jodi. Carrying the Vision: Bringing Design Studio Practice to HCI Institutions
[2] John, Bonnie. Usability and Software Architecture website. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bej/usa/
[3] Morris, Shane. Conference course: Interaction Design Studio ACM CHI Conference (2007) San Jose
[4] Principles behind the agile manifesto http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html
[5] Schwaber, Ken. Agile project management with Scrum. Microsoft Press (2004)
[6] Bowker, G. C. and Star, S. L. 2000 Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences. MIT Press.
[7] Ungar, J., & White, J. (2008, Feb 10, 2008). User Interface Design in an Agile Environment: Enter the Design Studio. Presentation at the IxDA Interactions ‘08, Savannah, GA..
[8] Ungar, J., & White, J. (2008, April 10, 2008). Agile User Centered Design: Enter the
Design Studio – A Case Study. Paper presented at the CHI 2008 Art. Science. Balance., Florence, Italy.