Human-Centered Design (HCD) and Agile practices are often at odds with each other in terms of their approach, practices, goals, and drivers. Agile development focuses on iterative development, minimal documentation, and working code. By contrast, HCD focuses on research, analysis, and user testing and validation – activities that can start earlier than development, take longer, and occur at less regular intervals than an Agile development sprint.

Yet although these practices have different characteristics, they are actually not in conflict with one another. The key to blending HCD and Agile is finding a way to leverage the power of measured, deliberative activities and still be open to embracing change.

This discussion will cover some of the nuances of integrating Human-Centered Design within Agile teams in order to reach outcomes that exceed those that could be achieved by either process on its own. We will relate several case studies in which this blended approach was employed, and discuss the successes and challenges of implementing the approach on actual development projects.

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