Becoming a team player: the evolving role of design in agile development

Abstract

Through qualitative methods, this paper examines the evolving role of the visual communication designer within the Agile development process with a special focus on educational ramifications. As websites and software become more complex environments, designers can quickly find themselves unable to design and implement a complete solution on their own. While this realization seems like a loss of control—the designers and their designs now appear to be at the whim of the developer—it can actually result in more thoughtful solutions. Designers must simply learn to become a team player by integrating themselves firmly into the process. In doing this, the integrity of the visual design will not be compromised and will add broader benefit to the site or application. It is crucial that designers adopt a new team-based mentality towards designing digital products.