Playing guitar and applying agile usability

• My role: Interaction Design

• Employed by: Recife Center for Advanced Studies and Systems (CESAR)

CESAR dedicated almost 100% of my working time to Samsung’s projects for 4 months. There are two games: one to teach how to play the guitar and another based on a new movement approach.

The process used was Scrum. So I had to adapt what had to be done with agile usability, putting the user focus in the projects beginning until its end. The team was very participative and we had the opportunity to share impressions about the interfaces throughout the releases. In particular, I could be supported by a pupil during the usability work. She helped me to detail better my actions and fortified the user rights defense.

For both games, we had user tests before the release delivery – every two or three weeks – and idea to share between them. The tests of the guitar game were in fact done with a guitar instrument. We used it to know how the user would react playing a chord, tuning the instrument etc. The other game had the interesting challenge of how to explain the movement on the first screen – the game success depended on it.

Each release was sent to the client with a report containing: user test plan, screens tested and results (issues, suggestions and new features suggested by the users).