**Abstract**

Recent research has called for the use of enriched measures, that is, psychophysiological measures of emotional and cognitive states, in user experience (UX) testing. This chapter investigates how these enriched measures can inform user experience evaluation while maintaining agility and speed in managing UX projects. Using a multiple case approach, this chapter presents the analysis of 12 recent user experience projects in which enriched measures were used. Lessons learned with regard to challenges encountered are outlined. They emphasize on: (1) the nature of the research question impacts the completion time and the complexity of the project; (2) the need to communicate and coordinate between all parties; (3) the need to anticipate the collected measurements and enhanced results using a mosaic of hybrid collection methods; (4) the nature of the results adapted to underline the operational side without reducing the quality of the work performed; and (5) the time constrains influenced and influencing the pre-tests and project's granularity. This chapter concludes with lessons learned from an agile/UX development approach in the realization of *Sprint projects*.

**Keywords:** user experience (UX) research, psychophysiological measures, agile development cycle, usability testing project, case study

## **1. Introduction**

In many industrial fields, high-growth technologies are disrupting traditional models of development in multiple ways. On the one hand, expectations and demands of the market are changing at a faster pace, thus creating a competitive pressure for companies to launch their products at a higher rate than before. On the other hand, consumers, who are getting used to constantly seeking more, increasingly expect these technologies to fulfill their specific needs although the majority struggle to define what they really want and hope to have [1]. Hence, to meet the consumer's high expectations and needs, organizations are turning toward user experience (UX) research and its possibilities to put forth enriched measures that go beyond the deployment of explicit measurements resulting from interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires [2–4].

In order to better understand and get an overall picture of user interaction and satisfaction regarding a product, enriched UX measures arising from psychophysiological and neurophysiological data—that is, cognitive and emotional measures from lived experiences—have been proposed in recent research [5, 6]. However,

we know from experience that analyzing such measures is time-consuming and complex; hence, they may not always be available promptly to inform product development [7, 8]. As a result, organizations find themselves in a methodological impasse: "There is no time to do thorough usability tests with users between iterations or release cycles, and only testing paper prototypes and doing expert analyses do not provide an accurate picture of the product's usability" [9]. They are thus expected to synchronize their production at a faster pace by adopting a rapid and efficient cycle of development while understanding the different aspects of the user's cognitive and emotional interaction.

quality assurance phases, and is called a working version" [19]. On the other hand, the UX approach leads development teams to create products that are integrated

Nevertheless, both these approaches remain complementary: "Agile projects are highly feedback-driven, yet product teams often rely on user opinion in situations where observation is more appropriate (such as the focus group elicitation strategy described earlier)" [19]. Consequently, the UX approach can greatly improve the agile approach by providing a systematic and scientific way of assessing the needs of target users [18]. Yet, the integration of one approach within the other is complex since, within the UX practice, there are various types of measures implicating different time constrains. On the one hand, there are the neurophysiological data. The preparation needed to collect this kind of data is arduous but, with a strong methodology, can be analyzed rapidly. On the other hand, there is the perceptual data. This data are mainly collected through interviews and need a lot of time to analyze and assess. Finally, there is a promising avenue towards putting forward

There is a gap in the literature and a need to answer this crucial question: Can enriched UX measures be performed quickly enough to be include in an agile development? Two literature reviews on the subject [16, 18] present interesting conclusions and avenues of reflection. One of the main trends seems to be to promote a specialist approach through which the UX work within an agile team is carried out by a specialized designer researcher [22]. Collaboration and communi-

highlighted not only by the application of the "scrum" model but also by the use of visual artifacts: "We find that both sketches and design stories have critical roles, that these artefacts support creation and reflection, facilitate resolution of contradiction, and also work at a level of consciousness that is below the level of selfawareness" [23]. In addition, to facilitate the integration of experiential results into UX within a development based primarily on product functionality, the Little Design Up Front (LDUF) practice is the most widely adopted initiative in Agile/UX [16]. "LDUF reduces—but does not eliminate—the large amount of design work done through [User-Centered Design] at the beginning of the project so that more effort can be spent on functionality" [18]. This practice is also enriched by the Sprint 0 (i.e., initial sprint), a Sprint process whereby initial user research is done so that all stakeholders can jointly create a basic skeleton and ensure that all future

UX designers also often have to simultaneously perform multiple roles involving

With the purpose of integrating an agile approach into an UX research method-

ology, we must clearly define the objectives to be achieved and ensure that the expectations of all stakeholders are realistic and well defined from the outset of the

numerous tasks such as user research, market research, user-centered design, prototyping, usability inspection, user testing, visual design, feedback, and coding [18]. Consequently, they are usually in different working groups, if not in several departments, or even different subcontracted organizations; this evidently complicates coordination and communication between all stakeholders. Moreover, UX researchers find themselves in a unique situation where they have to learn not only to adapt to a new culture and work environment but also to become quickly familiar with the project that has been granted to them. Often, a project may have already been initiated and it may even be in a phase of advanced development, thereby requiring UX researchers to work rapidly to take it forward. While immersed in an agile approach, UX researchers find themselves working on smaller sections of the project simultaneously instead of considering the whole project, which additionally

cation are also recurring themes in Agile/UX literature. Communication is

harmoniously into the user's life and are adapted to them [20].

*Towards Agility and Speed in Enriched UX Evaluation Projects*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89762*

enriched UX measures implicating both of those data types [21].

Sprints add incremental real value to the project.

tends to change fast.

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It is, therefore, important to understand how to facilitate UX-enriched data collection and deployment by integrating an agile approach; a topic of growing interest that has been repeatedly projected in prior research presenting psychophysiological measures [10–12]. These implicit measures are less sensitive to social desirability and retrospective biases than explicit measures (e.g., self-reported questionnaires). Thus, the triangulation of explicit and implicit measures offers many advantages, such as providing richer and fewer biases in UX measures. This triangulation approach provides clarity on the participants' lived and perceived experiences [13–15].

This chapter investigates how these enriched measures can inform user experience evaluation while maintaining agility and speed in UX evaluation projects. Using a multiple case approach, we analyzed 12 recent usability testing projects in which enriched measures were used. It outlines the lessons learned with regard to challenges encountered, the advantages and limitations of using psychophysiological measures in UX evaluation, and the benefits for UX project management practice.
