Artifact-Facilitated Communication in Agile User-Centered Design

One of the main challenges faced while establishing the integration of Agile and User-Centered Design is how to facilitate communication among the invariably distinct involved practitioners. Advocating the use of artifacts as enablers in this scenario, this paper aims to explore and understand the artifacts which can facilitate the communication between developers and designers in an Agile User-Centered Design approach. Drawing upon a netnography of a globally-distributed online community, we carried out community observation, data collection, and data analysis. The data analysis and interpretation pointed out two major themes: artifacts facilitate communication and artifacts support collaboration. Our paper provides an overview of the artifacts used for communication in Agile User-Centered Design and highlights how artifact-facilitated communication ensues in the industry through a perspective from practitioners.

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