http://buildabrand.com

User Interface (UI)/User Experience (UX) design Jedi Carlos Rouse joined buildabrand as our principle UX Strategist at the end of May and brought to the team a wealth of UI and UX design knowledge . Having worn many design hats at BSkyB, he’s faced his share of UI challenges and has developed some clever and beautiful solutions.

Carlos recently gave his presentation, “10 Principles of Design within Agile”, to the buildabrand team after an afternoon standup, and since sharing is a huge part of our culture here, I’ve went ahead and created a quick cheat-sheet of the takeaways.

As a bit of background for those not currently using Agile development principles, they stress the importance of incorporating simplicity, efficiency, transparency and constant adjustments into the development process. Within such an environment, Carlos makes these recommendations for designers:

Content comes first. Design around the content, rather than dropping content into a pre-established design. Get real examples of content as early as possible. Don’t use Lorem.

Functionality is key. Always design for the user. The user experience should never be compromised, but enhanced. Think of every design as a solution.

Start with pen and paper. Get all your early ideas down as quickly as possible. Figure out UI and scenarios quicker, and solve problems earlier. Good design always exposes any flaws in the original idea.

Know the technology. You don’t need to code to understand the technology and how it can be leveraged to the user’s advantage. Be careful though, the biggest mistake here is designing for technology rather than the user.

Adapt to change. “Goalposts” always move in Agile, so be ready to go with the flow. Divide work into Epics, Themes, and Stories – which for design, translates into: Creative Vision, Template Layout, and Component Design.

Don’t dwell in Photoshop. Photoshop is time consuming – especially when there’s change, thus rendering “Pixel-Perfect” PSDs useless. Try focusing on tightening the overall vision. Set the rules that govern detail.

Focus on user experience. UX is 50% of the designer’s role within Agile. Remember, the creative is all about managing the user’s expectations. Take ownership, consult the IA team and champion good usability.

Change your strategy. Try doing something different in every iteration. Make mistakes quicker, learn faster. This will increase your velocity and output.

Teach the client. The product owner only has a rough idea. As you polish it and bring it to life, teach them about design decisions. Clients need to know more about the design process.

Have fun. Agile is all about communicating and openness. Use retrospectives and showcases to vent any problems or gripes. Otherwise – Enjoy yourself!

You can see sketches of Carlos’s work on his personal site www.carlosrouse.com or follow him on Twitter @CarlosRouse.