RITE+Krug: a combination of usability test methods for agile design

As user experience professionals, we often face objections that there is not enough time or resources to conduct usability testing during development. With the proliferation of Agile methods being used by development teams to compress the software lifecycle, the focus on time becomes even more critical. To meet the challenges of Agile development, we combined aspects of two discount usability methods: the Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation method (RITE) and the approach to usability testing taken by Steve Krug. In this paper, we describe why we combined the methods and which elements we incorporated from each. The impact of using this new RITE+Krug combination has been remarkable. Test sessions are getting between 12 and 15 observers on a regular basis. The development, design, product management, and usability teams are engaged and actively participating in the usability testing process. Each test takes only a few hours time from the stakeholders' schedules, because the testing and debriefing can be conducted and concluded in one to two days. As a result, we can conduct a RITE+Krug test every two weeks and can get feedback on more aspects of the product than ever before.