Product Design Experience (II. v) -- When Interactive Design encounters agile development

Let's go back to January 15, 2002, where Alan Cooper, the father of interaction design, and Kent Beck, the founder of extreme programming, are at the PK. The topic is "When interaction design encounters agile development ". Just like the two masters in the novel, the two sides won't compete in the three hundred round, but the two sides will eventually shake hands and (or break up with a stingy bid, huh, huh), citing some comments on the battle:

Master Cooper believes that the bullet is very expensive, so you must aim precisely before each shot. The person in charge should be a professional interaction designer.

Master Beck thinks that with extreme programming, bullets become very cheap. I don't need to aim too accurately. If I don't want to shoot it, I just need to take another shot. It's no big deal, and I will always hit the target.

Master Cooper is suitable for being a sniper, and the hit rate of point shooting is almost 100%.

Master Beck is very suitable for being a machine gunner. Machine guns are not allowed to be shot by point. Generally, they are all swept away and the enemy is wiped out with intensive firepower.

The two have different perspectives, but there is no conflict between them. On the contrary, interactive design and agile development methods can be combined to deliver products that satisfy users at a lower cost. Patton has made a successful attempt in this regard.

 

In other words, the method is only suitable, and there is no good or bad. Maybe "Interactive Design" is more suitable for traditional fields, mature companies, and ample time resources, users have already taken a leading role in a certain field. The goal is to seek stability and win without making mistakes. "Agile development" is suitable for emerging industries, start-up companies, and time is pressing, the first person can take the lead, or enter an industry as a challenger. The team itself is flexible, the loss of failure is not big, and the cost of re-engineering is low. From this point of view, the Internet industry and SaaS models seem to be more inclined to use agile development methods. However, agility is not forced to give up interaction in a short time, it is an idea of taking the initiative and integrating interaction into it (Agile design ?).

From another perspective, "Interactive Design" is suitable for design-oriented companies, and "Agile development" is suitable for technology-oriented companies. Each company has its own strong department, so do not start it first.

In Agile development, "Interactive Design" is a bit like the fable of "elephant and monkey" (I cannot find it at the moment). It is also like writing a book or a draft, there is no way to evaluate which one is better or worse. Maybe there is a good book in combination.