program selection system

Short Abstract [88 words]

Sticky notes (aka Post-it Notes [tm]) are the lingua franca of remembering pesky tasks…yet their real potential lies in effectively and rapidly organizing collaborative group work. Don’t underestimate these simple tools: it’s amazing what powerful results you can get from a $2.00 office supply investment.

This 30 min experience report gives attendees another perspective on how one software company is approaching selling and executing user experience projects using Agile methodologies. Specifically, we will focus on our experience and approach to expanding User Research (UR) component in our projects. We feel that UR is vital to a successful software project but is the hardest part of User Experience to sell because it is often viewed as 1) taking more time, 2) costing more money, 3) slowing down development, and 4) unnecessary (“we already know the users”).

User experience (UX) is a relatively young field that involves a diverse set of skills and activities. UX tasks have grown in importance as the focus of product design moves away from technical possibilities and towards the usefulness, usability, suitability, and overall product experience that can help attract and retain customers. Come check out the poster near the UX stage to get an overview of what is involved in this increasingly essential discipline.