Integrating User Experience Design into the

Product Lifecycle
Integrating User Experience Design
into the Product Lifecycle
Presented by

Jeff LeBlanc
Director of User
Experience
ICS

jeffl@ics.com
About the Presenter

Jeff LeBlanc

Software developer for 20+ years

Certified Qt trainer since 2003
Human Factors team at HP Medical
Adjunct faculty at WPI teaching HCI
 Agenda

• What is UX Design
• When to apply UX Design
• UX, Agile and the software lifecycle
• Case Study
 What is User Experience?
User Experience (UX)
involves creating
solutions to problems
that are both functional
and engaging
 User Experience vs User Interface

• All software has a User Interface (UI) of

some type, but how do you feel after
using it?
• A positive User Experience (UX) means
– You enjoyed using the system, or at least did not
dislike it
– You would use it again and recommend it to
others
 What is Good Design?

• “I’ll know it when I see it”

– The First Impression
• Good design sets your product apart and
makes it memorable (in a good way)
– The iPhone changed the world
• Customers expect it
– They care about what something does for them,
not how it does it
The Importance of Design

• Design isn’t just a good idea, its good business

• Creative processes are often hard to put a
price tag on
• Sometimes required
– AAMI/ANSI HE75:2009: Human factors
engineering - Design of medical devices
 Poll Question

How important is the user experience (UX) design

process, and the resulting product, to your company?
1.Very important
2.Somewhat important
3.Important enough
4.Not important
5.Non-existent
 Pragmatic Solutions

• According to a 2015 Pragmatic Marketing survey,

PMs are looking for solutions to common problems
– Better working relationship and process between product
management and development/engineering
– Spend more time on the front end ensuring that
development understands the context of the
requirements, the market problems and end user use
cases

2015 State of Product Management & Marketing, from Pragmatic Marketing

Total of 1800 individuals surveyed
 When to Apply UX Design

• Ideally, early on or at project start

• UX is also valuable at later project stages and
in future releases
 Why to Apply UX Design?

• Every dollar in UX saves between $2 and $100

– PointClear: ROI UX Best Practices in Tech Projects
(whitepaper), 2011
• User-centric design practices drive your brand and
build equity
• Look at companies known to practice UX
– Amazon: $326
– Apple: $526
– Google: $544
 Who does the UX Design?

• Software engineers think like engineers, not

like end users (customers)
– Different mental models
– Different skill sets
• Often get an interface that only makes sense
to other technical people
– Techies like to figure things out, but not everyone
else does
 Myth: Designers Slow Me Down!

• Can slow down the start of a project, but not

the final delivery
• Research shows UX design speeds up projects
30% - 50% in total time

http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/usability_in_the_real_worl
d/roi_of_usability.html
How Long to Write Code This?
 What is a UX Team?

• Not an engineering team

• Not a marketing team
• Not a sales team
 What is a UX Team?

• Diverse backgrounds, education and training,

including:
– Human Factors engineering
– User Experience design
– Human computer interaction
– Visual design
– Industrial design
– Software engineering
 What is a UX Team?

• Different titles, different roles

– UX Designer
– Interaction Designer
– Visual Designer
 What Does UX Bring?

• A good UX person or team can

– Be the Champion of the User
– Help bridge development concerns with business
requirements
– Focus the development effort on the right issues
 Poll Question

Do you believe you have the knowledge and

skills in-house today to integrate UX into your
development process?
• Yes, we do
• We have some of the skills and experience
needed
• No, we don’t
 UX and Software Development Cycle

• Waterfall
– Requirements, specs, code, test, release
– UX done up front
• Agile
– Light specs, features coded in short sprints
– Very common practice today
– UX done just ahead of implementation
 Integrating UX into Your Process

• UX Design should not happen in a vacuum

• Designers need to recognize implementation
concerns
• Huge design specs may not be the way to go
• Requirements can change over a long project
 UX, Requirements Gathering and
the Customer
• Project requirements come from all
stakeholders
– Sales
– Marketing
– Engineering
• The UX person can play the Champion of the
User
– Look at features only through the eyes of the user
 Agile Development
• A development methodology that allows software to be
delivered at a modern pace
• From the “Manifesto for Agile Development”
– Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
– Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Used successfully at many companies
• Agnostic to UX

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/07/is-ux-strategy-fundamentally-
incompatible-with-agile-or-lean-ux.php
 Agile UX

• An Agile UX process to match development

– Lightweight docs, user stories, sketches,
prototypes
• UX needs a head start
– at least one sprint
• Importance of the Big Picture
 Agile vs Lean UX

• Lean UX is not the same as Agile UX

– Intended to be used in lean start ups
– Highly strategic in nature, get the most value
• Agile UX is a set of practices to integrate UX
into Agile development
 Treading Lightly

• Agile has always been by developers, for developers

– The UX is often a side effect
• Danger of small working pieces at the expense of
cohesive UX
– The Big Picture
• Agile must be approached broadly, not just as a
programmer thing

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/agile-development-and-usability/
 Early Project UX

• Requirements analysis
– Make sure you’re building the right product by identifying
key features
• User personas and user stories
– Describe a “representative user” and how/when/why they
would use your system
– Design the right system for the right person at the right
time
 Early Project UX

• Heuristic Analysis of an existing system

– Use general usability guidelines and experience to evaluate
existing systems and make recommendations for
improving usability
• Workflow Analysis
– Identifying and documenting the various inputs, outputs,
and actions that make up a process
– Example: clinicians interacting with a patient in a medical
setting
 Early Project UX
• Performing Task Analysis to identify improvements
– Identify and document the mental and physical activities that take
place to accomplish a given task
– Example: recording a TV show
• Creating an Information Architecture
– Outline for your interface - what information is displayed on which
screens
• Visual design bake-off
– Creation of and then head-to-head comparison between different
visual design concepts
 Early Project UX

• Usability testing can be done using paper

wireframes to ensure users understand the
design - before you invest resources in
development
 Mid Project UX

• Figure out where the project is, what the end goal is,
and look for immediate areas to add value
• Decide where to focus remaining efforts
– Use a heuristic analysis to identify low-hanging fruit
– Visual design refresh
– Visual QA
– Usability testing of current design
– Establish a roadmap for the rest of the project
 Poll Question

In your current process, where do most often

you integrate UX best practices?
1.At the beginning of the project
2.At the middle of the project
3.At the end, to validate the project
4.Do not have a process, but would like to
Case Study – Intel IVI Demo
 Case Study – Intel IVI Demo

• Intel needed an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI)

demo for a tradeshow
• Nine weeks, concept to deployment
• Lots of functionality
– Bluetooth calling
– Media playback
– Vehicle diagnostics
 UX Design Workflow

• Information Architecture
• (Interactive) wireframes
• Mock-ups
– Validate with client before coding started
– Photoshop mocks win for speed vs code
• Screen specifications
• Asset creation
 Staying Ahead of the Hordes

• UX team was one sprint ahead of engineering

• Working on screen content that engineering
would need in the following sprint
 The Devil is in the Details

• Shared Google drive for passing artifacts from

UX to Engineering
• UX was part of the full team chat
• UX representative attended daily stand-ups
Project Results
 In Closing

• Companies that apply UX on projects have

shown great payback
• Applying UX best practices at the start of a
project yields the best results
• Applying UX best practices later in the project
is still beneficial
 ICS UX Group
We exist to design and build great products, period.

We’re a team that knows how to work with engineers and within
an Agile methodology. We understand UX First.

To see how we work, visit www.ics.com/ux-video

For further information, contact me:

Jeff LeBlanc
jeffl@ics.com
Thanks for Attending