Usability Evaluation Practices within Agile Development

Abstract

Despite having different underlying concepts, agile methods and User-Centered Design aim ultimately at producing high quality software. Aiming at providing better understanding on how usability evaluation is addressed within agile environments, we carried out multiple-case studies in two large IT companies. On the one hand, our studies corroborate the literature with regards to the execution of usability inspection evaluations on lightweight prototypes, taking advantage of the iterative nature of Agile. On the other hand, we observed contrary to the literature that this iterative nature of Agile has not facilitated the execution of user testing sessions. Furthermore, we noticed that it is extremely difficult to perform traditional user testing sessions due to the tight schedules inherent to Agile. Finally, we describe a set of practices that can help improve specific artifacts in different stages of an agile process in order to successfully evaluate software product usability.

The Agile UX Development Lifecycle: Combining Formative Usability and Agile Methods

“…This allows collecting user feedback with a real product user interface while complying with the agile principle of frequent releases. Formative usability is usually conducted differently when combined with ASD: solely by the UX team, using low-fidelity prototypes [25], and before designs are passed on to the agile team for implementation [10,28]. Alternatively, it is limited to acceptance or demonstration sessions [23].…”

Integrating Usability into the Agile Development Process: A preliminary empirical study

“…Therefore, although the idea of integrating ASDP and UCD has been around for some time, there are open questions regarding this integration such as, for example, the tight ASDP schedules that are an obstacle to the user testing sessions prescribed by UCD [39]. Note that there was an upturn in the number of publications in 2014, confirming the interest in this field.…”

“…Kushniruk and Borycki [33] describe the application of their proposal called low-cost rapid usability testing that has been applied in the agile development of healthcare systems. Da Silva et al [39] suggest evaluation by means of usability inspections of lightweight prototypes. [90].…”

“…The paper by Da Silva et al [39] proposes the execution of usability inspection evaluations on lightweight prototypes, taking advantage of the iterative nature of agile. As this iterative nature has not facilitated the execution of user testing sessions, Da Silva et al propose a set of practices and improvements for specified artefacts at different stages of the ASDP in order to successfully evaluate the usability of a software product.…”

Artifacts for Agile User-Centered Design: A Systematic Mapping

“…The overall picture of this integration is robust enough for researchers and practitioners [2]. However, such action on a day-to-day basis is still a concern, and one of its main problems is how to improve communication between developers and designers in order to build a shared understanding.…”