Re: [XP] When and how do design/UI activities happen?

joe_dickason wrote:

> If there is a "Maintain Addresses" user story

What if that story were too big?

If you split the story into a low- and high-value part, usability must
survive that split. You can't put addresses in the database without at
least giving them a data entry field on the screen, and an output
somewhere.

The act of splitting a story is a form of analysis and design. The
team might agree that "maintain addresses" is a done deal. We have all
done the name-and-address thing before (some of us in Sanskrit! See
below).

If the story splits, however, the usability that goes with the
high-value feature must itself be high-value usability. So let's push
these two out of the iteration:

> - sort the list be begin date descending
> - display the primary address as bold and green.

The current iteration must target names and addresses, but no dates,
and no list. Further, the system only stores a primary address,
without any secondary ones.

> Are the decisions and mock-ups just documented in whatever form they
> occur =96 like a whiteboard diagram with notes all of over it?

They could, but my narrative shows the usability decisions stretching
out in time. The next iteration could require those lower-value
features, or other supporting features.

> Should
> all of this information be reflected through the user acceptance
> tests of the story?

Unfortunately yes. Otherwise, allowing usability to incrementally grow
could expose your GUI to the risk of unforseen changes. Users don't
like usability to change so easily.

> I know that it wouldn't be documented in a full-blown Functional
> Specification, but I wonder how do all the decisions in a 30 minute
> design meeting get noted to ensure everyone gets all the parts
> developed and tested.

All projects start with Community Agreements and Motherhood Stories,
describing what level of detail and sophistication are expected to go
with each story. Some projects are performance-driven, and others are
GUI-rich, for example. So these 30-minute meetings simply refer out to
many more minutes of actual learning and debate.

> Are there books and/or web articles that
> answer these types of questions?  I also read Extreme Programming
> Applied, but it didn't address my questions directly.

This draft focusses on the coding and acceptance tests aspects, but
not the usability itself:

http://www.zeroplayer.com/cgi-bin/wiki?TestFirstUserInterfaces

For the usability side, try /Designing Interfaces/ by Jenifer Tidwell.

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