More, better, faster! Agile design for fun & profit

”Agile” is the buzzword du jour, but just like cliches, buzzwords are built on at least a scrap of truth. The agile movement, which grew out of the arena of software development, has much to teach user experience and visual design. A concentration on the thing itself, less time wasted on pretty but non-functional deliverables, treating clients as partners and flexibility can only help designers achieve more, better and faster.

In 2008, while working in one of Germany’s largest web agencies, I experimented with an agile process in the relaunch of ecco.com, one of our largest projects. In this presentation I will use the ecco.com project as a case-study to explain:

  • how agile can be applied to design processes
  • how our process differed from a typical ux/visual design project
  • how agile influenced the end result
  • what our team learned from the experience
  • how agile design could be applied to any project

Reviews & writeups

Alex Manchester: UX Australia 2009 – Matt Balara on ‘Agile Design’

Presentation audio