The context
There are innumerable configurations a dev team can adopt, depending on requirements, available resources, and the project’s complexity. We won’t always have a dedicated user experience person.
In a perfect world with infinite resources, time, and efficiency, we could have an entire team of specialists for every possible edge (research, design, engineering, copywriting, etc.). Unfortunately, that is not always the case, so the question arises: how can we incorporate user experience into our processes, methodologies, and mindset?
Where it fits and how?
Every project, team, and method will be different. Still, on a straightforward overview of the delivery process, we always see research and discovery, requirements and scoping, design, build, test, and release and learn. Now, not all efforts start with research; sometimes, the development needs to hit the ground running, and the process can take various forms, such as iteration loops or even pivots.
Research and discovery
When it comes to research and discovery, it may seem like an undeniable place where user experience wouldn’t be lacking, since it’s the central point of the process and is commonly managed by the product layers of a team. Still, instead, we should focus on including the larger squad to participate in discovery workshops at least as observers, the dev team, for example. Adding our larger team to some sessions can increase visibility for all members and stakeholders on where the stories are coming from and help us empathize with our actions to meet the needs throughout development until release.
Requirements and scoping
When scoping and defining requirements, it is essential to consider the user very closely, not only that, but being able to prioritize correctly the what pain-points and needs are going to be tackled first, here having a dev team help with feasibility estimates, even if rough, can be very helpful in setting a possible critical path and plan of delivery.
Design loop
In our design stage, it is common to encounter an iterative loop for user validation, but these loops can be integrated into every step of the process. Metrics for measuring delivery quality and the types of loops can be defined and evolve as the product is created and updated, from general validation to satisfaction and usability. Design should always prioritize the user over aesthetics, and practicality should always be the foundation.
In the following blog post, some AI based alternatives for teams without a dedicated UX/UI role.
Development
Even when design is defined, the build is underway, and the iterative design process for new features, changes, and improvements runs in parallel with the product, we can still integrate feedback loops to gather, test, and validate. The methods can be anything that helps the team get a clearer idea of how the user will behave in the product, what expectations they have, and the gaps in consideration and technical gaps that exist.
We have plenty of tools to draw from: behavioral interviews in design or build, demo walkthroughs, usability testing, satisfaction surveys, and validation mechanisms built into the interviews or prototyping; all depend on what we want to know, and what resources we have at our disposal, including users, who could be thousands or just a handful.
The inclusion of the dev team is critical to conducting a feasibility check of what user behavior dictates as the priority.
Testing and release
When it comes to testing, as in the building stage, a team can leverage users, if available, to check performance, usability, and satisfaction at a mature pre-release version to validate and identify gaps for the next iteration of the product.
At the release of the current build, we found ourselves at another parallel where as we release we are restarting the whole process for the next iteration of the build, at this point we not only have a team that has been working alongside users and understand them bit more, but the users have been training to be better at voicing and showing their concerns, needs and feedback more easily and with a more significant impact.
Last thoughts
Ensuring a consistent user experience across our entire process, and as a core of our teams and stakeholders, is not a nice-to-have addition, but an essential foundation of the effort itself. There are countless software and hardware products throughout every industry and aspect of life that are beautifully designed, aesthetically pleasing, and incredibly well-crafted… that nobody uses, and on the opposite side, at first sight what appears to be hostile, ugly even products with massive user bases and consistent use, because they focused on the user needs and pain-points.
Having a user experience and empathy mindset for our teams can not only guide us but also save time, resources, and budget, and deliver a more robust, market-capable product.
