MEX Experience Boards: A Set of Agile Tools for User Experience Design

Carlos RosembergInstituto AtlânticoSWIB / IHC2010Belo Horizonte - Brazil

Entering in the Agile World1. Individuals and interactions

over processes and tools

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Yes, Agile developers and UX people have many agreements. But some issues remain...

→ How to do good user research when working code is asked to be delivered very early?

→ And about the working artifacts produced? How much effort is necessary? How are they now used by developers?

To create a real UX vision in the agile projects, UX people

“need to use simpler tools and techniques, focusing more in understanding than documenting, and supporting rapid input and change.” (Craig Larman)

In other words→ to invest more in simple, fast-

making artifacts; → to intensively use visual language

for team fast assimilation;→ to allow team and stakeholders

collaboration (participatory design)

The Mex Experience Boards use good pratices from the Agile and UX worlds.

...By reorganizing and customizing some well-known tools and techniques in order to make them more light-weight.

They are the Summary Board and Flow Board.

Before continue...

What is MEX?

MEX : a Model for User Experience

CONTEXT

ACTIVITIES

MOMENTUM

INTERACTIONS

INDIVIDUAL ARTIFACTS

This conceptual model of a generic user experience helps to organize the complex relationship between main user experience elements.

Individual

Individual

What he/she thinks ? What he/she likes? What he/she knows? What he/she is able or unable to do?How he/she reacts to stimmuli?

Activities

Activities

What the individual is trying to accomplish?What are his/her objectives?Which steps must/might be taken?

Artifacts

Which objects play relevant role in the experience? Which are your characteristics?

Artifacts

Interactions

How the individual interacts with artifacts around?The artifacts interacts between themselves?Which stimmuli happen? Which senses are involved?

Interações

Context

Context

How the social and cultural aspects affect what is happening?In wich environmental conditions the experience occurs?

Momentum

The experience clearly has a beginning, middle and end?The individual can really get engaged?

Momentum

Beginning

Atraction

End

Conclusion

Pos-experience

Extension

The well-succeeded experience stages

Sources: Nathan Shedroff / Mihály Csíkszentmihályi / John Dewey

Middle

Engagement

FLOWThe mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity

Ok, let´s come back to the experience boards.

Mex Experience Boards in Agile context

User roles definition

Vision statement with initial

requirements

User stories definition

DevelopmentActivities

Development Phase (sprints 1 to n)

Initial Requirements Phase (Sprint 0?)

Experience Summary Board

Details MEX elementsall at once, providing insights to requirements definition, focusing in the overall user experience.

Experience Flow Board

A customized flow analysis intended to discover or design task flows

First, let’s take a look in the Experience Summary Board

Experience Summary Board details all MEX elements in the early product conception phase providing insights to requirements definition.

→ It focuses in the overall user experience (i.e: buy a book on-line)

→ and summarizes the agile user experience analysis in just one place.

Mex Summary Board Example using plain text

Also recommended: post its or white board + camera

Now, let’s see the Experience Flow Board

Experience Flow Board is intended to discover or design task flows.

→ Simple task flow analysis in a swim lane board. → In each lane there is an experience stage that

refers to the MEX element momentum (start, development, finish and extension).

An Experience Flow Board example

In an ordinary task flow chart, the MEX elements are exposed and studied.

And...

An Experience Flow Board example

Splitting the experience into phases helps to focus in the Start and Extension points. This is the main advantage of this approach.

Is very easy to pay attention only at the development (middle) stage.

Early Results in small Case Studies

→ More team awareness about user experience

→ More user experience requirements gathered

→ Team buying

First Conclusions

The main benefit of using these tools is the reinforcement of the connection between UX and agile approaches, getting the better of the two worlds.

Future work→ Create more tools in order to cover

the whole extension of agile development processes;

→ Mature and refine this tools in several types of projects.

Main References→ Carlos Rosemberg.

MEX - Modelo Genérico de Experiência do Usuário: Uma Evolução Conceitual. In: Simpósio de Fatores Humanos em Sistemas Computacionais, Porto Alegre, 2008.

→ James Shore et Al. The Art of Agile Development, O'Reilly Media, 2007.

→ Mike Beedle et Al. Available at: http://agilemanifesto.org.

→ Nielsen, J. Agile Development Projects and Usability. Available at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/agile-methods.html

→ Craig Larman. Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development, Third Edition. Prentice Hall, 2004.

→ Mike Cohn. User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Addison-Wesley, 2009.

Thank you!Carlos Rosemberg

carlosrosemberg.comcarlbberg@gmail.com