Integration Of User Experience Research Articles

Integrating UX work with agile development through user stories: An action research study in a small software company

The integration of user experience (UX) work with agile software development has been addressed in extensive research of challenges and process models. However, in-depth research of context-specific improvements of this integration with actual UX professionals and agile developers in their actual practice is limited. This study examines how the integration of UX work with agile development can be improved in the context of a small Danish Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company. We used the problem- and solution-oriented action research method over 12 months in the company. During this period, we initially carried out extensive participant observations, recorded 32 semi-structured interviews, and finally conducted two improvement iterations with evaluations of their effect on agility. We identified user stories as an essential indicator of UX integration. Verbose user stories imply problems in collaboration and trust, while concise user stories and deliberation improve integration of UX work with agile development. The conclusion is that integrating UX work with agile development in practice is complex, contextualized, and difficult even for only a small part of it. We propose that concise user stories and deliberation can be useful and well-defined focuses for integrating UX work with agile software development without sacrificing their agility.

Integrating UX principles and practices into software development organizations: A case study of influencing events

Current studies on User eXperience (UX) integration often do not investigate or reflect on the transition companies go through from only developing Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) to also considering usability and more recently UX. Understanding this transition provides a more holistic and realistic picture of integration and can be a rich source of knowledge for improving UX integration in the software industry. Applying case study and grounded theory research we show that UX integration, like other organizational changes, can include a mixture of planned and emergent initiatives, and is influenced by various intertwined events; not only those that reside inside an organization but also those external to it. We also show that different decisions that are made outside the authority of UX practitioners have an inevitable impact on enabling or prohibiting UX integration. In addition, we found that for a successful integration, practitioners need to explicitly consider and address the characteristics of UX, otherwise, the integration efforts may have a lopsided focus on the pragmatic aspect of UX, consequently, leave the hedonic aspect unaddressed. Based on our findings, we present four lessons learned and five pitfalls companies should consider to go beyond GUI design and usability to also address UX.

Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Online Social Therapy for Youth Mental Health.

Introduction: Benefits from mental health early interventions may not be sustained over time, and longer-term intervention programs may be required to maintain early clinical gains. However, due to the high intensity of face-to-face early intervention treatments, this may not be feasible. Adjunctive internet-based interventions specifically designed for youth may provide a cost-effective and engaging alternative to prevent loss of intervention benefits. However, until now online interventions have relied on human moderators to deliver therapeutic content. More sophisticated models responsive to user data are critical to inform tailored online therapy. Thus, integration of user experience with a sophisticated and cutting-edge technology to deliver content is necessary to redefine online interventions in youth mental health. This paper discusses the development of the moderated online social therapy (MOST) web application, which provides an interactive social media-based platform for recovery in mental health. We provide an overview of the system's main features and discus our current work regarding the incorporation of advanced computational and artificial intelligence methods to enhance user engagement and improve the discovery and delivery of therapy content.Methods: Our case study is the ongoing Horyzons site (5-year randomized controlled trial for youth recovering from early psychosis), which is powered by MOST. We outline the motivation underlying the project and the web application's foundational features and interface. We discuss system innovations, including the incorporation of pertinent usage patterns as well as identifying certain limitations of the system. This leads to our current motivations and focus on using computational and artificial intelligence methods to enhance user engagement, and to further improve the system with novel mechanisms for the delivery of therapy content to users. In particular, we cover our usage of natural language analysis and chatbot technologies as strategies to tailor interventions and scale up the system.Conclusions: To date, the innovative MOST system has demonstrated viability in a series of clinical research trials. Given the data-driven opportunities afforded by the software system, observed usage patterns, and the aim to deploy it on a greater scale, an important next step in its evolution is the incorporation of advanced and automated content delivery mechanisms.