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research-article

What do software startups need from UX work?

Authors:

Leonor Barroca,

Leticia Machado,

Cleidson R. B. de SouzaAuthors Info & Claims

Empirical Software Engineering, Volume 28, Issue 3

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-023-10322-x

Published: 13 May 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Empirical research on software development practices in startups is growing. However, little has been investigated about how User eXperience (UX) work has been carried out in software startups. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate what software startups need from UX work. To achieve this goal, we conducted open-ended interviews and retrospective meetings with 16 software professionals from two software startups in Brazil. We analysed the data qualitatively using different coding approaches: initial coding, focused coding, and theoretical coding. We found 14 UX work-related needs which emerged from the daily practices used for software development in the two startups studied. Based on our findings, we propose an initial theoretical framework that highlights two theoretical themes and four groups underlying the needs identified. Our study reveals several relationships between UX work-related needs which are helpful to understand in order to identify what startups need from UX work in practice and to focus startup teams' efforts on the most urgent needs. As future work, we plan to explore ways in which these needs may be addressed so that UX work may be put into practice in software startups.

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Cited By

Guerino GMartinelli SChoma JLeal GBalancieri RZaina L(2023)Perceptions about Usefulness and Attitudes toward UX work: a survey with software startup Brazilian professionalsProceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3638067.3638069(1-12)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3638067.3638069

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Published In

cover image Empirical Software Engineering

Empirical Software Engineering Volume 28, Issue 3

May 2023

845 pages

ISSN:1382-3256

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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

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Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 13 May 2023

Accepted: 15 March 2023

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Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Agile Business Consortium

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Cited By

Guerino GMartinelli SChoma JLeal GBalancieri RZaina L(2023)Perceptions about Usefulness and Attitudes toward UX work: a survey with software startup Brazilian professionalsProceedings of the XXII Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3638067.3638069(1-12)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3638067.3638069

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