User-Centred Agile Development to Support Sensemaking

Abstract

The aim of UCD is to create solutions that fit the needs of the users, in their contexts of use. User-centred design (UCD) is a fitting approach for supporting sensemaking, as the aim of UCD is to understand contextual user needs and use this as a basis to iteratively explore and design solutions. Similarly, agile software development uses iterations and rapid feedback to continuously explore, learn and improve user stories and their implementations. Gould and Lewis underline how early and continuous focus on users, empirical measurement of usage and iterative design are core UCD traits. The double diamond is commonly used by design disciplines and emphasizes the process of discovering needs and framing the design problem prior to exploring solutions. While direct user involvement takes time and effort, relying on indirect user contact runs the risk of creating a product no one needs. Design processes typically start with an exploration of the problem area at hand.