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New Post 2/7/2022 2:10 PM
User is offline Stewart F
119 posts
7th Level Poster


What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design? 

I am a Head of a BA Team and we are working with a new client. The client wants us to work their way, which is different to how we normally do. Thats not a problem, as every now and then Clients ask for this. 

The project is to design a new digital website for an eCommerce platform. Again we have done plenty of these.

Normally we work in a triangle where you work in this order:

1. High level requirements - User Stories have enough information for Designers to understand what is requried but NOT solutionising. User Stories are not at this stage enough for developers to beuld from as they will require all CTA buttons/links etc to be lsited and where they go to or data is retrieved from (these will be listed out in the third stage).

2. Design start work - They build the design and I get that signed off by the stakeholders

3 User Stories are completed - based on the lower level more precise detail - inlcuding listing out all CTA buttons, linksand any shown data etc. 

The client though wants us to work with requirements being gathered in full first, but not solutionising (i.e.saying exactly how the design should look). The Design team of UX/Ui designers then create the design of how it will actually look and work based on all of the detail in the User Story. Developers will then work from those User Stories.

It's a subtle difference but how do you write the User Story requirements/Acceptence Criteria without solutionising? If you don't get Design invovled at that stage (which we aren't allowed to) then I dont see how you can write your User Stories without solutionising?

 
New Post 2/7/2022 3:47 PM
User is offline Chris Adams
323 posts
5th Level Poster






Re: What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design? 

Stewart,

In short, I'm with you. An agile process should only complete user stories on a just in time basis. They start high -level and get detailed out as the project progresses along. Acceptance criteria tends to be finalized soon before the product owner prepares to move the user stories into a spint.  Now, with that said, some acceptance criteria can be known early on. 

I would say that what the client is attempting to impose is rigid and goes against the interative principles of agile.  Particularly since they are trying to secquence these steps like a mini-watefall.

Where does design enter? Well, I always viewed it as having two purposes. It sounds like the client is assuming that design is only done for solutioning. I disagree. While that is one big purpose, early design can work well to uncover user stories/requirements that may have been missed early on. It's intended to help with interative requirement gathering and solutioning. Design shouldn't be a single stage.

While UI design is solution focused not everything in a UI design should be assumed to be necessary. Soemtimes UI design decisions are made quite arbitrarily by the designers. So unless the user stories, acceptance criteria, and any other supporting documentation clearly state the requirments that are reflected in the UI, the UI solution isn't fixed.  

Chris

  


Chris Adams
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New Post 2/16/2022 9:29 AM
User is offline hauser
1 posts
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Re: What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design? 

Interesting. Our team never even had the capacity to form user stories before developing. So it ends up changing a lot during QA. It's a nightmare but it still works at the end.

 
New Post 2/16/2022 10:09 AM
User is offline Chris Adams
323 posts
5th Level Poster






Re: What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design? 

So, what requirements are you using to do development work?


Chris Adams
Core Member – ModernAnalyst.com
LinkedIn Profile
 
New Post 2/16/2022 8:54 PM
User is offline Kimbo
454 posts
5th Level Poster


Re: What Comes First - Requirements or UX/UI Design? 

Hi Stewart,

Just wondering how you're dealing with website content? Am I right in assuming you're just writing stories about functionality or do you have the content covered in your stories.

Just curious, doing something similar at the moment but not as formally.

Kimbo

 
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