CH. 3: Iterative Development

_________ development works by continual refinement through trial and error.

Iterative

usability

Something is usable if it's functional, efficient, and desirable to its intended audience.

Examination steps occur through a # of things like.....

focus groups interviews usability tests site analytics

usability test

will tell you whether your audience can use what you've made. It helps identify problems people have with a specific interface and reveals difficult-to-complete tasks and confusing language

Where User Research Fits In Iterative Development

• Studying a product's users at all times reveals new markets, needs, desires, and capabilities, constantly making the product a better part of people's lives.

Iterative Development includes ..... (3)

1. Examination. This step attempts to define the problems and whom they affect. Questions are raised, needs are analyzed, information is collected, research is conducted, and potential solutions are evaluated. Strengths and weaknesses are enumerated and prioritized. Customers' needs and their capabilities are studied, and existing products or prototypes are evaluated. 2. Definition. Solutions are specified 3. Creation. Solution plans are carried out. Refine product goals

3 Benefits of Iterative Development

1. Flexibility: As the process continues, the questions get answered, the details get filled in, the prototypes start looking more like the completed product, and the flexibility of the process goes down. 2. Adaptability: rather than the shock of the waterfall method—where the final product is pushed out into the big bad world and left to fend for itself—iterative development attempts to understand the environment and predict how the idea needs to adapt in order to flourish before it is released into the wild. 3. Shared vision: engineering, marketing, information architecture, design, business development, customer support—should be part of a single iterative development process. Everyone needs to iterate through the process along with the core development team, sharing information and improving the product with every turn. Not only can the whole company develop the product identity together, but using the same research methods reduces the need to alter plans after the product launch by taking into account the changing needs of all facets of the organization. In treating the product as a system of solutions developed over time, rather than as a single release, the business uses its resources strategically, planning for the long term while reacting to short-term developments.

3 Iterative Development Problems

1. uncertainty throughout the process, which can be frustrating to a development team that wants to be able to delve deeply into feature development. 2. It requires discipline and dedicated project management because it can be a complex process that requires every iteration to focus on a subset of the product, when other glaring problems may be screaming for attention. It can require backtracking to review earlier assumptions, which may extend development time. 3. Mostly, though, the biggest difficulty in implementing iterative development is creating a company culture— from the CEO to marketing to customer service—that understands the process and integrates it into the way the company works.