Waterfall vs. Agile

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From the course by California Institute of the Arts

Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture

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California Institute of the Arts

Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture

56 ratings

Course 3 of 4 in the Specialization UI / UX Design

This course is focused on the early user experience (UX) challenges of research, planning, setting goals, understanding the user, structuring content, and developing interactive sequences. While the concepts covered will translate to many kinds of interactive media (apps, digital kiosks, games), our primary focus will be on designing contemporary, responsive websites. In this course you will complete the first half of a large scale project—developing a comprehensive plan for a complex website—by defining the strategy and scope of the site, as well as developing its information architecture and overall structure. Along the way we will also discuss: - Different job descriptions in the web design industry and where UX and UI skills fall within this spectrum - The difference between native apps and websites - The difference of agile vs. waterfall approaches - User personas and site personas - User testing The work and knowledge in this course continues in the last course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes, where you will tackle—finally—wireframes, visual mockups, and clickable prototypes. This is the third course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, which brings a design-centric approach to user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone. These courses are ideal for anyone with some experience in graphic or visual design and who would like to build their skill set in UI or UX for app and web design. It would also be ideal for anyone with experience in front- or back-end web development or human-computer interaction and want to sharpen their visual design and analysis skills for UI or UX.

From the lesson

The User Experience Process

This week I will give you a brief overview of the user experience process that I will teach in this course sequence. We will begin by defining the term "user experience", and then briefly look at the five phases of UX design: Strategy, Outline of Scope, Sitemap, Wireframes, and Visual Mockups. I will also talk about the differences between mobile apps and websites, and the differences between waterfall and agile approaches to UX design. Lastly, I will introduce you to the main project that you will be working on in this course and the one that follows it. You’ll be starting your first assignment at the end of the week. Last, here's something to keep in mind this week: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”—Steve Jobs

Waterfall vs. Agile4:24

Meet the Instructors

Roman Jaster
Visiting Faculty, Program in Graphic Design
School of Art

Let me speak quickly about two terms that you might have heard about or if you

haven't you'll probably hear about them soon as you

deepen your knowledge of user experience design.

The terms are Waterfall and Agile and they represent two different approaches to UX.

There's actually quite a bit of discussion,

argument and controversy about these terms.

They're are factions and turf wars and it's all pretty fascinating.

Once you've had a bit of experience as a UX designer

you'll probably want to join a side of the argument yourself.

So what do these terms actually mean?

The waterfall approach is a more traditional way of developing websites and Apps.

Remember all the phases we talked about in the previous lesson.

I explained how each phase is built upon

the previous one and although there can and should be some overlap,

it's still a fairly sequential process.

One phase follows the next and in the end there's a big launch.

It's just like a waterfall where the water starts at

the top and plunges down in a rather linear fashion.

Hence the name.

For many smaller websites this process makes a lot of sense.

You complete the UX process then you develop test and launch.

There might be small changes here and there

but the development of the project is completed.

Using such a process for big and complex projects however can be treacherous.

It's tempting to want to get everything completely

right before showing your site or App to the world.

Working with a waterfall process can mean years of development before

your project sees the light of day and since nothing is tested until late in the process,

chances are pretty high that the project went down the wrong path

and the final product has serious flaws that cannot be easily corrected.

By now, lots of time and money has already been spent.

That's where an agile process offers an advantage.

To stay with the water metaphor,

you can think of agile more like the wheel of a water mill.

The agile process is circular and iterative.

Instead of planning for one big launch at the very end of a long process,

there will be many launches along the way.

The goal is not to get everything exactly right the first

time but to get something in front of the user as quickly as possible.

This way, ideas can be tested by getting

actual user feedback and the product can be shaped over time.

With the agile process the product is never really done.

Instead, there is an ever evolving process that

includes cycles of user experience design,

development, testing and launch.

In Silicon Valley Speak,

people often talk about MVP.

No, this has nothing to do with the most valuable player.

In the UX world this acronym stands for Minimum Viable Product

and it means that companies should focus on

all the aspects of a product that are absolutely vital.

Everything else is secondary and can be added later after the initial launch.

To be sure, a lot of start-up companies pride themselves using

an agile development process and for many apps and web apps that makes absolute sense.

Think about Gmail or Facebook or Instagram for example or Uber or Airbnb or Amazon.

These sites and services are constantly being developed and they constantly change.

They are on a never ending development cycle and they are never really completed.

Their current incarnation compared to what they

were when they first launched, is quite different.

So where does this leave us and this course?

Well, we'll be looking at things through more of a waterfall-y lens .

Since many of you will be confronted with the UX process for the very first time,

we'll talk about each phase one at a time sequentially roughly one per week.

Once you complete this course sequence however,

you should have enough background in UX methodology that

you will be able to join an agile team without problems.

Remember, there will always be more to learn.

For now, you should just know these terms waterfall and agile and keep your ears

sharpened when you hear other people voice

their opinions about the pros and cons of each.

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