User research and agile in the development of computer/video games

[Adrian Howard]

Hi Janus,

On 4 Feb 2008, at 13:23, Janus Rau Sorensen wrote:
[snip]
> I work as a user research manager at a computer games developer.  The
> production is going more and more in the direction of the
> agile-methodology, and I wanted to pose the question, if any of you  
> know
> of any relevant literature or had personal experience (and advice)  
> as to
> how to implement user research processes (e.g. usability and UX)  
> within an
> agile environment - both in general design and development, but  
> especially
> related to the development of computer games.
[snip]

You might want to look at the agile-usability list <http:// 
groups.yahoo.com/group/agile-usability>. Lots of useful info there,  
e.g. the "Can user interface design be agile?" thread starting at  
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agile-usability/message/1350>.

The topic's come up quite a few times in the IxDA list too - you  
might find some of the stuff under <http://www.ixda.org/search.php? 
tag=agile> of use.

Jeff Patton has some great stuff on the topic. Check out <http:// 
agileproductdesign.com/>. His book-in-progress is also worth looking  
at. Lynn Miller's got some publications on agile/UX work too <http:// 
tinyurl.com/2y5u4y>.

There's a nice UCD/Agile Round Table discussion with Lynn Miller,  
Jeff Patton and Rebecca Wirfs-Brock you can listen to on the Agile  
Toolkit podcast at <http://agiletoolkit.libsyn.com/index.php?post  
_id=15584>

You _might_ find some of the stuff under <http://del.icio.us/tag/agile 
+ux> of interest - however a lot of it needs filtering through my  
brain before it makes sense in an agile/ux context. Sorry :-)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Adrian