ThoughtWorks GeekNight on UCD and Agile
Last night myself and Paul attended a ThoughtWorks GeekNight event, held in central Manchester. The speaker was Luke Barrett and the topic of discussion was the state of modern usability, user-centered design and how this can fit in with best-practice software development techniques such as Agile development.
Luke’s talk was a great overview of the state of usability, touching on a wide variety of topics. In particular, he highlighted the tension between functionality and aesthetics from a number of different angles, pointing out that a functional but drab interface might score well for usability, but lack any emotional weight. Likewise, whilst it’s certainly possible to allow artistic impulses to run wild, the lack of usability input into interfaces can result in designs which look great but fail to deliver for users.
He explained how his own role at ThoughtWorks – a global company employing over 1100 people – has become ever more central as the importance of usability has moved up the agenda and gained acceptance amongst software developers, managers and clients alike. Often it’s hard to make a case for usability simply by talking or writing about it – customers can be dubious about what sounds like a costly exercise in something they don’t understand – but it’s often easy to get people on board once they begin to see the results. The modern approach of making extensive use of visual prototypes rather than written software specifications allows for much higher-quality feedback from the customer early in the development process, leading to better project execution in the long run.
Luke concluded by saying that he felt that there is a considerable benefit to combining modern usability techniques with ‘agile’ software development, a process which involves rapid prototyping and a willingness to change course to satisfy customer feedback. This is something that I’ve written about before, and it was great to encounter someone from such a successful company extolling the virtues of that approach. Events like last night’s are a great way to spread best practice amongst the software development and usability community and many of the attendees came away enthused by what they had heard.
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