State of the art of Agile User Experience: Challenges and solution approaches

Introduction to special issue on Agile UX: challenges, successes and barriers to improvement

Integrating human-centered design (HCD) approach in healthcare informatics solution are changing the landscape of the e-services and e-satisfaction among the users. Major evolution of informatics system in healthcare organization helps to revolve the role of design by changing it into key element that centralize on user’s capability on improving their e-service. Ample studies on implementing element of humanities into user experience-based design are now being adapted in order to enhance satisfaction and utmost benefits to users. This paper is built on a systematic literature review of academic papers that seeks to explore the influence of human-centered design approach towards user experience in health informatics sector. The total number of selected literatures using PRISMA process for this study is n = 64. The obtained results of this study highlighted the relation between human-centered design approach and user experience. This study also illustrates the process of human-centered design flow adapted from selected studies focus on healthcare sector in a unique approach to developing user-friendly informatics system to bridge the user experience gap.

Influences of UX factors in the Agile UX context of software startups

While Agile methods were originally introduced for small, tightly coupled teams, leaner ways of working are becoming a practical method to run entire enterprises. As the emphasis of user experience work has inherently been on the early phases before starting the development, it also needs to be adapted to the Agile way of working. To improve the current practices in Agile user experience work, we determined the present state of a multi-continental software development organization that already had a functioning user experience team. In this paper, we describe the most prevalent issues regarding the interaction of user experience design and software development activities, and suggest improvements to fix those. Most of the observed problems were related to communication issues and to the service mode of the user experience team. The user experience team was operating between management and development organizations trying to adapt to the dissimilar practices of both the disciplines.

The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology drives the need for a point of sales (POS) system that is not only efficient, but can also provide adaptive information according to the user's sudden wishes. This research implements the design thinking method in designing a user interface (UI/UX) for a smart POS system integrated with conversational AI features. A case study was conducted at a Plastic Poultry Wholesale Store to gain in-depth insights related to field needs and operational challenges faced. The design thinking method was chosen because of its user-centered approach, through the stages of empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and testing, it is hoped that the final results obtained can be aligned with the concrete needs of users, so that the output of the system that has been designed will not be abandoned, but will always be used. In this design, the implementation of conversational AI is used to enhance the user experience through a virtual assistant feature that is able to answer dynamic questions according to the wishes of the user, so that users can freely explore any information in detail related to their overall business performance. The implementation results show that this system not only increases operational efficiency, but also improves user experience through more intuitive interactions when they want to see their business performance. This research contributes to integrating AI technology with a user-centered design approach for smart, responsive, and adaptive POS system solutions.

In cellular networks, the introduction of device-to device (D2D) technology could promote cell coverage and expand user experience. In this paper, we consider the scenario of relay assisted D2D communications, and developed an adaptive architecture for D2D communications to be used in emergency conditions. Such events are difficult to predict. Therefore, their situations are accompanied by uncertainty. The experiences of various emergency situations and the related research strongly indicate that reliable and robust communications could facilitate the much needed flow of information, and consequently help to reduce risk in decision making in emergency situations. This paper analyses some of the significant requirements, technology challenges, and solution approaches that must be in place in order to enable disaster networks and in particular, D2D communications, to meet public safety network requirements. In particular, we propose a clustering-procedure-based approach to the design of a system that integrates cellular and D2D operation modes depending on the availability of infrastructure nodes. Furthermore, we simulated the outage probability of the D2D enhanced network by quantifying energy parameters and Base station densities affect the performance of D2D enhanced network. Results shows that a low complexity threshold based clustering scheme can balance between energy consumption, coverage and formation speed.

Web-based audio information systems have the potential to bring the full promise of the Internet to the developing world. However, these systems run into a practical difficulty - insufficient support for playback and recording of web-based multimedia from feature phones. At the moment, feature phones constitute more than 90% of all phone shipments in emerging markets like India, and will continue to form a significant fraction (>50%) several years from now.In this paper we explore the practical challenges associated with audio playback and audio recording on feature phones. We present a systematic evaluation of the options to play and record audio media in a range of feature phones, and highlight problems stemming from a lack of memory, slow processor speeds and no support for progressive streaming downloads. In summary, the players in these phones are usually designed to handle audio files of short durations (a few minutes). Anything longer results in frequent breaks in playback (of up to 300msecs), and a very poor experience for the end-users. We investigate various solution approaches that may overcome these issues, and present an implementation and evaluation that achieves a seamless user experience on any audio stream.

This paper explores a framework for the integration of User Experience (UX) in Agile within the South African context. For this study, grounded theory was applied as a suitable qualitative method to determine how the integration of UX into Agile is carried out in practice. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews with professionals working in an Agile/UX environment in South Africa. Further data was collected using questionnaires in order to promote validity and reliability with more information from more participants. The themes that emerged from the study shows that there is an increasing need for UX in software development amongst Agile teams. The findings were used to design a framework to facilitate the integration of UX into Agile.

In the context of Digital Transformation, organizations need to react in a flexible manner to rapidly changing markets and disruptive technologies. Customer and user satisfaction are important in order to succeed. Agile User Experience (UX) Design and Lean User Research enable the organization to focus on the needs of its customers and users. The objective of this paper is to investigate the best practices that exist for user research in agile product development. In particular, we want to answer the following question: What impact does Lean User Research have and how is it conducted in industry? We have carried out several studies to answer our questions. First, we created the pattern Lean User Research by means of a systematic pattern mining process. Next, we gathered quantitative data by means of a questionnaire study. This was followed by the collection of qualitative data in a panel discussion with experts from academia and industry. The results reveal that Agile has an impact on how user research is conducted because of the speed of agile product development. In addition, we provide best practices of Lean User Research and show how they are applied in industry by giving practical examples. Moreover, we found that the UX community values the aspects of Lean User Research as important, but do not constantly apply it in their practical work. We can conclude that people have to experiment and adapt the best practices of Lean User Research to their special contexts as well as develop an agile mindset.

The ongoing densification of small cells yields an unprecedented paradigm shift in user experience and network design. The most notable change comes from cellular rates being comparable to next-generation WiFi systems. Cellular-to-WiFi offloading, the standard modus operandi of recent years, is therefore shifting towards a true integration of both technology families. Users in future 5G systems will thus likely be able to use 3GPP, IEEE, and other technologies simultaneously, so as to maximize their quality of experience. To advance this high-level vision, we perform a novel performance analysis specifically taking the system-level dynamics into account and thus giving a true account on the uplink performance gains of an integrated multi radio access technology (RAT) solution versus legacy approaches. Further, we advocate for an enabling architecture that embodies the tight interaction between the different RATs, as we lay out a standardization roadmap able to materialize the envisaged design. 3GPP-compliant simulations have also been carried out to corroborate the rigorous mathematical analysis and the superiority of the proposed approach.

Worldwide OEMs like BMW, VW, or GM are introducing more and more e-car platforms as approach for new sustainable mobility solutions. As prices are still high and the markets are behaving observant, car manufactures have to develop global standardized e-mobility solutions in order to serve low volume-driven markets worldwide with the same e-cars and marketing strategies [cf. Plötz et al. (Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice 67:96–109, 2014)]. But is one strategy really suitable for all car drivers worldwide? Do car owners from different cultures perceive e-mobility driving experience in a similar way? (cf. [cf. Bühler et al. (2010), Using patterns of electric vehicles: A reliable indicator of acceptance? In Proceedings of the 90th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (pp. 1–12)]. We addressed this question by conducting a user experience study with three testing groups from Germany, China, and the USA. Using an Associative Group Analysis, subjects were asked about their free and standardized associations as well as their weightings and evaluations to performance dimensions of e-cars before and after driving a BMW i3 series car. Analyzing similarities and differences between German, Chinese, and US car drivers, we outline managerial recommendations to OEMs acting on global automotive markets.

The gap between business services and IT services becomes a major concern in services computing. As an approach for service-based IT solution, services computing systems are promised to be able to bridge the gap between these services. The implementation will require an engineering framework as a guide to building the systems. The framework needs to be evaluated to provide important feedback to the framework development. This paper outlines the evaluation of SCSE framework through an acceptance model. The study develops an acceptance model based on the experiences of a group of engineers after using the framework to build smart campus services systems. A survey involving 54 systems engineers with various engineering backgrounds was conducted to assess the experiences of the engineers in using the framework. The results of the acceptance model show that both perceived ease of use, represented by the level of agreement (Ï…1) and perceived usefulness, represented by the level of importance (Ï…2) deliver good results almost for the entire stages of the proposed framework. In addition, the user experiences of using the proposed framework are in the acceptable levels. The contribution of this paper is an enrichment of the engineering methodologies for the service-oriented system from the perspective of services computing.

The increasing number of connected users and devices to Cloud, Fog, and Edge environments encouraged the creation of many applications and services in the most varied areas and domains. Such services are highly distributed on top of heterogeneous infrastructures that require real-time monitoring. The monitoring process may be considered a complex task since it requires experienced users and robust cloud-based solutions to support the most varied needs in such scenarios. The main problem relies on the centralization of the monitoring approaches for cloud-centric solutions that represent a central point of failure in end-to-end communication, compromising the application's security and performance in case of high latency or downtime. In this context, blockchain networks enable exciting features such as decentralization, immutability, and traceability with higher security levels. This work is towards a blockchain-based and decentralized resource monitoring solution for distributed environments. The proposed solution integrates blockchain technology to continuously monitor, store, and safely broadcast Operating System performance counters in a highly decentralized fashion. The results demonstrated that a blockchain-based monitoring tool based on Smart Contract is feasible and that it may serve as an entry point for varied solutions for monitoring, security, scheduling, and so on.

Organisations are investing heavily into enterprise system infrastructure. With a move to agility and Agile software development, there is an increasing need for understanding how Agile developers and User Experience (UX) designers work together in practice. This paper outlines the current approaches to investigating the combination of Agile development and UX design and indicates a direction for future research that could benefit integration across the cross-functional teams required for enterprise software development.

User experience (UX) has become an increasingly important factor in the success or failure of software systems. However, established agile practices for ensuring desired UX of the software under development are largely missing. Consequently, companies are facing problems in conducting UX work in agile development. This paper contributes towards understanding those problems and developing means to overcome them. We present results from a cross-case analysis of survey data from two large international software companies in this paper. Altogether, we surveyed 128 practitioners regarding challenges in agile UX work, the actual and desired contribution of UX specialists, and means to improve the current situation. For tighter integration between the disciplines, we suggest including the UX specialist in the development team itself.