Designing for Real People: Teaching Agility through User-Centric Service Design

Abstract

We present the design and evolution of a project-based course – Designing for Real People – that aims to teach agile software development through an unwavering focus on the user, rather than emphasising the processes and tools often associated with a method like Scrum. This module is the result of a fruitful collaboration between a Computer Science Department, bringing knowledge and skills in the software engineering aspects, and the Service Design group of a neighbouring Art College, with expertise in user research and user experience design.We present the details of the current structure, content and assessment strategies developed for the module, as well as the principles behind its design. The core theme of the course is gathering and responding to feedback, and so here we present how this has been applied to the design of the module itself, with lessons learned, and improvements made over time. By reflecting on our own work, we aim to provide recommendations that may aid others considering how to teach these topics.