XIAUT: An Extreme Makeover

1
XIA_at_UTAn Extreme Makeover

• Jill Burkart
• H. Leonard Liaw
• Amaris Vigil

Andrew Switzky Diana Miranda-Murillo Don Turnbull
http//www.ischool.utexas.edu/xia2003
The University of Texas at Austin School of
Information
2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Our Process
• Our XIA Experience
• Final Product
• Conclusion

3
Introduction Background

• Project Background
• Class project for advanced information
  architecture (IA) class
• Apply concepts from extreme programming (XP) to
  the IA redesign of a web site (XIA)
• UT Libraries site chosen for re-architecture
  because they were at beginning stages of a
  redesign

4
Introduction our methods

• Brief intro to our methods
• Kent Becks Extreme Programming Explained
  Embrace Change
• Lectures and class discussion
• Stick around for Dr. Turnbulls presentation for
  more details

5
Introduction XP Basics

• Values
• Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, Courage
• Fundamental Principles
• Rapid Feedback, Assume Simplicity, Incremental
  Change, Embracing Change, Quality Work
• Basic Activities
• Coding, Testing, Listening, Designing

6
Introduction XP Basics

• XP in Practice
• Planning
• Short Releases
• Metaphor
• Simple Design
• Testing
• Refactoring
• Pair Programming
• Collective Ownership
• Continuous Integration
• 40-Hour Week
• On-Site Customer
• Coding Standards

7
Introduction Tools

• Tools we used
• Both Mac and PC
• Group e-mail list
• Group web server
• Development tools
• Graphics tools
• High-tech classroom

8
Our Process Scanning the Environment

• Environmental Analysis
• Looked at public and academic library sites
• Looked at online bookstores
• Discussed interesting ideas, features and
  interactions in class

9
Our Process Finding a Focus

• Functional Analysis of UT Library site
• Essential functionality
• Searching
• Accessing Databases
• User Services
• Ideas for additional features
• BookBag (My Account/History)
• Advanced Search
• Narrowed focus to research portal

10
Our Process Users in Context

• User Stories
• Wrote a user story for each section
• Described Who, What, Where, Why and How

11
Our process Example User Story

• Select article, journal, or index (article)
• Choose a topic from the subsequent list
• System returns articles in the topic chosen
• Annotated list designates physical location of
  articles
• Articles of interest are flagged by user
• Abstracts of each flagged article are displayed
• User makes final selection of articles based on
  abstracts
• Abstracts are printed

12
Our process doing the work

• Designing the Site
• Defined the overall framework first
• Top level IA/Navigation
• Style sheets
• Page composition/template
• Pairs worked on each section
• Full group review
• User advocate role
• Compare against user stories
• Check for consistent interactions across site

13
Our XIA Experience

• Concepts/ideas that worked well
• Pair IAing
• User Stories
• Prioritizing functionalities

14
Our XIA Experience

• Places we deviated from XP
• pure-play bottom up approach
• Explicit testing against user stories
• pure-play pair programming

15
Our XIA Experience

• Lessons Learned
• Pair programming
• Work habits and coding styles must match
• Strength in diversity
• IA Refactoring
• Cumulative result from group work
• Situation may influence experience (class project)

16
Final Product

• Lets look at the final design

17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
Conclusion

• Learned XIA methodology
• Applied to our project
• Next steps?

30
For more information

• Contact us xia2003_at_ischool.utexas.edu

• Visit http//www.ischool.utexas.edu/xia2003