User-Centered Design and Extreme Programming

User-centered design (UCD) aims at designing software so that users needs are considered throughout the process. Extreme programming (XP) is the most well-known agile software development method. It aims at being so lightweight that changing requirements even late in the project do not cause much rework. This paper focuses on identifying conflicts between UCD and XP as well as discussing ways for resolving those conflicts. The used research method is a literary research. The results indicate that the biggest conflicts arise from the fact that XP focuses on quality of the code, satisfying the customer, and designing only what is necessary at the time while UCD focuses on usability of the end product, satisfying the user, and designing the user interface properly before implementing it. The most relevant suggestions for resolving these conflicts include having UI designers and users in the development team, using a lightweight process for translating users’ needs into paper prototypes, designing overall layout and look&feel upfront, and integrating usability evaluation with users into acceptance testing. The main conclusion is that only lightweight UCD practices can be included in XP. Especially usability evaluation with users lacks these kind of practices.