Lean UX Or Agile UX – Which One Should You Go For?

The world of web design is no longer about stunning and visually vibrant websites. Web designers also have to look after the UX or User Experience. In web design, UX is actually how a visitor feels when interfacing with a website. Prior to the advent of user-centered design, web designers focused mainly on two things:

1. What they think is awesome, and
2. What the clients want to see

There was no thought given to how a person who visits a website would feel about it. However, the increasing number of ways of accessing websites soon made it obvious that failure to consider UX will result in a definite downfall of a website. Unhappy visitors equals to a malfunctioning website, isn’t it?

Keeping this in mind, numerous UX design tools have come into the limelight. And Lean UX and Agile UX deserve special mentions. Both of them are popular and highly admired as they specialize in making the UX of a website better. But you cannot go with both of them at a single time. So if given a choice, then which one would you like to go for?

Confused? Let me help you out.

Lean UX

The biggest problem with the Waterfall design methodology is that it can be extremely time-consuming depending on the scope of a project. The introduction of Lean UX made sure that more emphasis is given on the actual experience and less focus on the deliverables. In this way, the entire work tends to become a lot faster.

Lean UX works with the principle of “learning loops” where the basic goal is to produce a minimum viable product. Once the core product is just ready to use, it is sent to the market to measure the response and demand. With the constant collection of data from the market, steps are taken to fully design the final version.

Agile UX

Often considered the ‘Gold Standard’ of user-centered design, Agile UX is all about dividing a big requirement into smaller parts. These “smaller” parts mainly comprise of coding, design and testing procedures. The works are all done simultaneously, and thrives to reach the end result with constant reviews and modifications along the way.

Like Lean UX, Agile UX also works on certain fixed principles. As the design gets tested frequently by both the client and the team members, interaction and communication become a lot better. As a result, the chances of getting better results also become higher.

Which One Should You Go For?

So far, I guess you’ve understood that both Lean and Agile UX focus on reaching the same goal. However, the methods taken by each one of them is quite different from the other. So if you have to choose between these two, then I’ll suggest you go with the one that has the most preferable path to the end result.

Pro tip: Go with Agile UX if you are looking forward to release a fully realized design. If you are ready to perform through many versions, you better go with Lean UX.