Agile UX vs Lean UX, What’s the Difference?

Designing for user experience comes with many acronyms and slang terms such as UX, IxD, IA, UCD, emotional design, agile UX, and lean UX.

There are many that think Agile UX and Lean UX are relatively the same term. The two UX’s have many qualities in common such as both have goals of making design more efficient, both are related to new user experience, and both terms prioritises design in the process of product development.

It is very easy to interchange the two, so why are there two terms for one definition? What’s the real difference between Agile UX and Lean UX?

Agile UX

Agile UX arrived on the user experience design scene first. Agile was invented by enterprise developers and is directed toward software development in the perspective of developers.

In the past design was belittled, especially software development, and user experience didn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserved.  The main focus of all software development was always about the end result it brought, even if the design was ugly and outdated. Agile UX gave software development a whole new focus: efficient development processes.

The guidelines of Agile UX include:

• Software performance comes before documentation
• User experience comes before the process
• Response to change comes before planning
• Customer collaboration comes before contract negotiation

Agile has quickly become the industry standard for developing all types of software. It will connect designers and developers in the process of product development.

Lean UX

Lean UX is different from Agile UX in that it’s focused towards the startup stages of a product – especially its sales. The idea is that a company must introduce a product and its conversion rates need to sore for the product (or project) to ever survive. The theory for this to work is that research must be conducted to restate the product.

The process starts by pushing out the beta versions of a product, where users can test the functionality at the promises of bugs and glitches. This builds anticipation and tests the waters to see if the market is interested in the product and works on establishing the final version later.

This is said to be a great marketing tactic and a good way to perfect a product based on user feedback.

Both UX modalities are modern methods by which consumers expect a product or service to be launched, delivered, and maintained from the start. The overall differences between the two are: Agile UX ends with an organised and refined product and lean UX presents different trials over time to ultimately finish with the final version.

Whether you choose Agile or Lean UX, it’s always best to design with the user in mind. Incorporate user friendly styles into your product development process and the end result will be one you can be proud of.

JTB Studios will always incorporate the best user experience into your project. To learn more about our UX design solutions, visit http://www.jtbstudios.com.au