The UX/UI experience in Agile projects is always fun, and the below is very sage, I think, when dealing with custom development… but what about implementing a platform? How does this approach fail? It does, in some cases, for good reason. Where does the skill set overlap between UX/UI people need to merge with development in these cases? OR, do we act truly Agile and just talk? Not working ahead, but along side of…?
UX: The Gatekeeper RoleThe two main recommendations for ensuring good usability in Agile projects remain the same as in our original research: Separate design and development, and have the user interface team progress one step ahead of the implementation team. That way, when it comes time to build something, it’s already been designed and tested. And yes, you can do both in a week or two by using paper prototypes and discount user testing. Maintain a coherent vision of the user interface architecture.
Create the initial vision during a “sprint zero” period — before any implementation has started — and maintain it through annual or semi-annual design vision sprints. You can’t just design individual features; they have to fit together into a coherent whole — a whole that must be designed as well. Bottom-up user interface design equals a confused total user experience the Linux syndrome.
From: Agile User Experience Projects Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox.