Improving Communication Between UX Designers and Developers for UXDebt Management
Bibliography Reference
Publication Abstract
User Experience Debt (UXDebt) has emerged as an important challenge in modernsoftware development, particularly in agile environments where rapid delivery oftenleads to design compromises. Poor communication between UX designers anddevelopers can contribute significantly to the accumulation of UXDebt, as designdecisions, feedback, and usability issues are frequently lost across different tools andworkflows. This paper proposes a system designed to improve communication anddecision-making between designers and developers by integrating design and projectmanagement tools. The proposed approach introduces a workflow supported by aplugin that connects design comments in Figma with task management in Trello,allowing UX observations to be documented, tracked, and synchronized across bothenvironments. The system was evaluated in an academic agile developmentenvironment involving students participating in a real sprint-based project. The resultsshow that the technical synchronization between tools worked reliably, althoughusability challenges and workflow integration issues were identified. The studyhighlights both the potential and the limitations of tool-based approaches formanaging UXDebt and improving collaboration between roles.
BibTeX Source Entry
@inproceedings{improving-communication-between-ux-designers-and-developers-for-uxdebt-management,
year = {2026},
title = {Improving Communication Between UX Designers and Developers for UXDebt Management},
author = {Ezequiel De Dominicis and Alejandra Garrido and Andres Rodriguez},
abstract = {User Experience Debt (UXDebt) has emerged as an important challenge in modernsoftware development, particularly in agile environments where rapid delivery oftenleads to design compromises. Poor communication between UX designers anddevelopers can contribute significantly to the accumulation of UXDebt, as designdecisions, feedback, and usability issues are frequently lost across different tools andworkflows. This paper proposes a system designed to improve communication anddecision-making between designers and developers by integrating design and projectmanagement tools. The proposed approach introduces a workflow supported by aplugin that connects design comments in Figma with task management in Trello,allowing UX observations to be documented, tracked, and synchronized across bothenvironments. The system was evaluated in an academic agile developmentenvironment involving students participating in a real sprint-based project. The resultsshow that the technical synchronization between tools worked reliably, althoughusability challenges and workflow integration issues were identified. The studyhighlights both the potential and the limitations of tool-based approaches formanaging UXDebt and improving collaboration between roles.},
booktitle = {Memorias de JAIIO 2026 - EST},
}