Begin with the end in mind, Stephen Covey famously has
said. User Experience Design is a way of doing just that in the
software world.
User experience design, abbreviated UX, is the practice of
seeing software through the eyes of its users, then designing the
interaction to be efficient, intuitive, and pleasant. For
StoneHenge Partners, the practice goes hand-in-hand with several
other user-centric practices that make up the Nimble Method℠.
UX balances the competing needs of software design and business
requirements, while championing the user's needs, expectations and
behaviors. (After all, in the software development process,
somebody has to stick up for the little guy.)
A typical UX sitemap/nav
tree
Components can include:
- An audit and usability study of the existing site or software
app
- Task flows and navigation maps
- User archetypes boiled down into Personas, and typical
scenarios for each
- A content inventory and hierarchy
- Wireframes and paper prototypes
- Written specifications and graphic mockup
A typical wireframe
illustrates functionality
The value of wireframes
At StoneHenge Partners, we emphasize wireframing as the primary
method to communicate business requirements, both upstream to the
client and downstream to the developer, because wireframes keep the
project focused on the end user.
- The client can visualize how his vague requirements (such as
"don't show the product price until after the customer logs in")
will appear to his customer. He sees it through their eyes.
- The architect/tech lead can visualize how to break the software
into its component objects.
- The developer can visualize the end result of his code.
- The tester can visualize a successful -- and unsuccessful --
test result.
Wireframes are not the only component we use to guarantee the
project finishes on target, but it's well worth the effort.