Unit 3 – UX & UX Design, The Wheel & Agile UX

UX & UX Design

  • User Experience (UX): sum of feelings & outcomes when a person interacts with a product, service, or environment
  • Good UX delivers usefulness, usability, desirability & accessibility
  • Interaction now spans desktops, mobiles, wearables, VR, smart environments, etc.

UX vs UI

  • UI is just one interaction portal; UX covers the entire experience ecology
  • Typical UI‐related roles: visual designer, interaction designer, software engineer
  • Terms UI, HCI, UX sometimes used interchangeably; in UX design focus is broader than UI software

Core UX Components

  • Usability: ease, efficiency, learnability
  • Usefulness: ability to accomplish goals
  • Emotional impact: affective response & satisfaction
  • Meaningfulness: lasting personal value

The Wheel – UX Lifecycle Model

  • Iterative cycle that moves a design closer to its goal each rotation
  • Template applies to single features or entire systems

Fundamental Lifecycle Activities

  • Understand Needs → learn users, work, domain, context
  • Design Solutions → create & refine concepts
  • Prototype Candidates → materialize promising ideas to required fidelity
  • Evaluate UX → verify & improve experience

Key Sub-Activities

Understand Needs

  • Data elicitation (interviews, observations)
  • Data analysis & modeling
  • Requirements extraction

Design Solutions

  • Generative design (ideation, sketches)
  • Conceptual design (models, storyboards, low-fi)
  • Intermediate design (wireframes, scenarios, trade-offs)
  • Design production (detailed specs)

Prototype Candidates

  • Paper, wireframes, click-throughs, physical models, wireflows

Evaluate UX

  • Collect & analyse evaluation data, propose redesign, report results

Choosing Processes, Methods & Techniques

  • Match methods to design situation & desired outcomes (appropriation)
  • Earlier method choices constrain later ones (e.g., data collection ↔ analysis)

Rigor, Complexity & Scope

  • Rigor = formality, thoroughness, precision, documentation quality
    • Completeness: cover every step & gather full data
    • Purity: keep data free of bias/spurious additions
  • Complexity influences required rigor
    • Low complexity → simpler tasks (e.g., online flower order)
    • High complexity → specialised, collaborative work (e.g., medical systems)
  • Scope in agile = feature chunk size per iteration
    • Small scope favours agility; large scope favours big-bang delivery

Agile Lifecycle & Funnel Model

  • Agile UX delivers design in small, fast increments synced with Software Engineering (SE) sprints
  • Funnel Model: broad, concept work early; detailed feature design synchronized with later SE sprints
    • Early funnel: larger scope, higher rigor
    • Late funnel: small scope, lower rigor, faster pace
  • UX outputs feed SE flow; implemented features feed back for continuous improvement

Mini Agile UX Cycle Within a Sprint

  • Analyze → Design → Prototype → Evaluate → Iterate until “OK”; then deliver UX package for the sprint

Challenges & Change Management

  • Requirements, technology & client vision evolve; gap exists between designer assumptions & real usage
  • Continuous user involvement & iteration help close the gap
  • Communication hurdles: users may struggle to articulate needs or feedback; bias is common

Quick Recall Reminders

  • Four lifecycle activities: Understand, Design, Prototype, Evaluate
  • Rigor & complexity scale together; agility demands small scope chunks
  • Funnel Model balances early concept depth with late sprint speed
  • Goal: deliver incremental UX value that keeps pace with agile SE while preserving user-centred quality