UX helps to define user needs by conducting research and preliminary testing. Establishing Agile goals are centered around flexibility, collaboration and communication for getting work done quickly. There are many Agile methods used depending on the situation. UX should be included in a project as early as the ideation phase and involved through the project's life cycle.
In this framework, people can address complex problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. Scrum includes roles, events, and artifacts that define the relationship and interactions between them.
In this visual approach to team collaboration, sticky notes and task cards make work more visible and allow for strategic planning. By organizing the cards for a project, predictions can be made where obstacles might come up. This gives teams enough time for additional problem solving if needed. However, when significant resources are allocated to UX at the beginning of a project, there can be a potential for significant savings at the end.
Less of a focus on deliverables, and a greater emphasis on assumptions to produce changes that may improve the product in that moment. Lean UX attempts to find the quickest ways to achieve an end goal, with as little traditional documentation based processes, as possible. The key here, is to understand when to use Lean UX, or not.
Product teams working through the waterfall methodology, set out to learn everything that there is to learn about a product before building, even the low-fildelity prototype. Typically, this model is used when product requirements are very well known, clear, and fixed.
Initial investment in UX design can significantly reduce costs in the future. UX Design and Design Thinking involve research, analysis, and testing. Therefore, possible usability issues, or problems can be identified prior to development, which is far less expensive.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) offer the best insights into how users interact with a product. This data is used to quickly determine the success of a product, and it measures the following:
1) Task success rate.
2) Time on task.
3) Search vs. Navigation
4) User error rate.
Some studies have shown that "stock" photos and other graphics add little value to a product. This is because most images are not customized to a particular application, nor are they contextualized to facilitate user needs.
Product design is typically regarded as ornamental and focused on making objects look good. In UX, product design revolves around structure and function, as it relates to the needs of users. The toolkit of a good user experience creative is strengthened by solid ethnographic research.
Often questions related to what usability is, as compared to desirability, are brought up in UX design and it is crucial to differentiate the two. A product may look good, but lack utility. Conversely, a product can be useful but lack desirability. The Neilson Norman Group concludes that there are four levels of user experience:
1) Utility - usefulness of a product.
2) Usability - efficiency, safety, memorability, learnability and satisfaction.
3) Desirability - the user wants to use a product in preference to another.
4) Brand Experience - does the customer feel good about the company.