This post is the first in a 2 part series on visualising your product backlog. The second post will look at Story Mapping. Recently on a trip to Sweden I was introduced to Impact Mapping, sometimes refereed to as effect mapping, as a collaborative work-shopping technique for identifying software features and mapping them back to organisational goals and user personas. The following article is a summary of the technique, as described in the book Impact Mapping: Making a big impact … Continue reading
Update: Jeff’s presentation is now available online. Today I was lucky enough to attend Jeff Gothelf’s O’Reilly webcast on Lean UX. I was particularly keen to attend the webcast as I’ve been around Agile projects for some time, performing business analysis activities and supporting clients through rapid prototyping, but I wasn’t sure how to make UX activities Agile and I was hoping that this webcast would help me answer that. Well the good news was, Jeff explained that Lean UX … Continue reading
Last week I presented a breakout session at Camp Digital 2013 on the topic of Rapid Prototyping. Synopsis Design and build projects are often difficult to kick-off, especially when you’re struggling to convey your ideas and understand the solutions being suggested. This can lead to delays, confusion and potential rework. Sound familiar? Rapid prototyping provides a quick and visual solution to identifying, documenting and validating project requirements in an interactive way. In this session Jamie will take you through examples … Continue reading
This month I was fortunate enough to have been asked to speak at a conference, alongside my colleague Chris Bush, on the topic of PET ™ Design Theory, “Persuasion, Emotion and Trust”. The conference was being hosted in Gothernburg, Sweden by Maverick, a Swedish based digital agency by Sigma. So what is PET Deisgn? Well Human Factors International (HFI), the authors of PET design say: PET design uses research-based techniques to leverage the science of Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust to … Continue reading
When I started this blog my intention was to create something that would encourage me to learn new skills and document them in a way that meant I would remember them and could develop them in the future. Since I started writing I have come into contact with BAs from all over the world who are looking to do something similar, some to develop themselves and some to develop others. One of the BAs that I have met and come … Continue reading
6 Months ago I joined Sigma, a User Experienced design agency. I joined as a BA, to support the team and the their clients, designers and developers to evaluate, specify and deliver successful solutions. I had initially thought that I would be part of the development team, having over 5 years experience of delivering software projects, but I’ve found myself working with the UX designers. While design is not what I would have traditionally called my domain, I’ve been surprised … Continue reading
Card sorting is a technique for informing Information Architecture. It allows the architect to collect data on users categorisation preferences and gives them an opportunity to observe users discussing their reasons behind their choices. Over at Boxes and Arrows Donna Spencer and Todd Warfel describe it as: A great, reliable, inexpensive method for finding patterns in how users would expect to find content or functionality. [1] An example Imagine you’re standing in the supermarket and you’ve been given a list … Continue reading
Jamie is a Manchester based Business Analyst & User Experience Consultant. He's passionate about good quality software and works alongside users and developers to ensure the right solutions get implemented. 
