Contextual Inquiry

1. Contextual Inquiry Material Source:Professor John Landay, UCB

2. Searching in PowerPoint • Cannot preview search results • Results pane holds only 2 results • No animation to convey search is in motion • Cannot preview search results to confirm success

3. User Study Methods & the different fields they come from • Social Psychology • Focus Groups • Business, marketing technique • Laboratory studies • Experimental Psychology • Think-aloud protocols • Cognitive Psychology • Participant/observer ethnographic studies • Anthropology

4. Contextual Inquiry • Technique for examining and understanding users and their workplace, tasks, issues and preferences. • http://www.infodesign.com.au • Witness users performing tasks • Objective rather than subjective as with questionnaire • An evolving method • A kind of “enthnographic” or “participatory design” method • Combines aspects of other methods: • Interviewing, think-aloud protocols, participant/observer in the context of the work • Part of “Contextual Design” • Read www.incent.com

5. Design Ideas Prototyping New Design Ideas HCI methods in the design process Contextual Inquiry Tasks Think-AloudUsability Studies Heuristic Evaluation Cognitive Walkthrough GOMS Empirical Methods Analytic Methods • Contextual Inquiry is used in beginning of design process

6. Contextual Inquiry • Interpretive field research method • Depends on conversations with users in the context of their work • Recommends “direct observation” when possible • When not possible • cued recall of past experience, or • recreation of related experience • Used to define requirements, plans and designs. • Drives the creative process: • In original design • In considering new features or functionality

7. Why Context? • Design complete work process • Fits into “fabric” of entire operations • Not just “point solutions” to specific problems • Integration! e.g. ‘those who bought this also…’ • Design from data (not instinct or guess) • Not just opinions, negotiation • Not just a list of features

8. Who conducts it? • Interviewers: “Cross-functional” team • Designers • UI specialists • Product managers • Marketing • Technical people • Customers • Between 6 – 20 • Representative of different roles

9. Key concepts in Contextual Inquiry • Context • Understand users' needs in their work or living environment • Partnership • Work with users as co-investigators • Interpretation • Assigning meaning to the observations • Focus • Listen and probe from a clearly defined set of concerns

10. Context • Definition: • The interrelated conditions within which something occurs or exists • Understand work in its natural environment • Go to the user • Observe real work • Use real examples and artifacts • “Artifact”: An object created by human workmanship • Interview while she/he is working

11. Master-Apprentice model • Master – Apprentice model allows customer to teach us what they do! • Master does the work & talks about it while working • We interrupt to ask questions as they go • Each step reminds the user of thenext • Skill knowledge is usually tacit(cant put it in books) • Studying many tasks, thedesigner can abstract away • Sometimes literal apprenticeshipworks (Matsushita “Home Bakery”)!

12. Contextual Inquiry Ongoing experience & concrete data Objective Spontaneous, as it happens What customers actually need Interviews, Surveys, Focus Groups Summary data & abstractions Subjective Limited by reliability of human memory What customers think & say they want Key distinctions about context

13. Elements of User's Context: Pay Attention to all of these • User's work space • User's work • User's work intentions • User's words • Tools used • How people work together • Business goals (e.g. always buy from XYZ Ltd.) • Organizational and cultural structure

14. Standard Contextual Inquiry:Work-based Interview • Use when: • Product or process already exists • Or a near competitor’s • User is able to complete a task while you observe • Work can be interrupted

15. Interview note-taking • When to take notes? • Any observations not being recorded • Note taking can help you pay closer attention • Notes lead to faster turn-around • Do not let it interfere with interviewing • How to record? • What the user says – in quotes • What the user does – plain text • Your interpretation – in parentheses • Write fast!

16. Reasons for variation on the standard work-based interview • Different goals • Designing a known product • Know the competition • Addressing a new work domain • Study what replacing • Designing for a new technology • Types of tasks that make work-based inquiry impractical • Intermittent – instrument or keep logs • Uninterruptible – video and review later • Extremely long – point sample and review

17. Partnership • Definition: • A relationship characterized by close cooperation • Build an equitable relationship with the user • Suspend your assumptions and beliefs • Invite the user into the inquiry process • Information acquired through dialog • User is expert – employ master/apprentice model • Encourage user to speak • Listen for non-verbal communications

18. Analysis • In the moment:Simultaneous data collection and analysis during interview • Post interview: • Using notes, tapes, and transcripts • Analysis by a group: • Integrates multiple perspectives • Creates shared vision • Creates shared focus • Builds teams • Saves time

19. Focus • Focus is a perspective • We always have an entering focus • Better to make it explicit • Characteristics of focus: • set of pre-conceivedassumptions and beliefs • reveals and conceals • “Show me how you do …” • Decide what to ask about • Still use general questions • Not an interview!

20. Setting Focus • Form a team of stakeholders • Brainstorm: questions, assumptions, design ideas. • Each group member brainstorms individually • Group meets and brainstorms • Delay evaluation during brainstorming • Record the items generated • Prune questions • Defer Qs that participants cannot answer • Conclusions about other peoples’ experiences • How large is the market? • Would you buy this product?

21. Key Benefits • Can be used early in development cycle • Defines user work problems and opportunities for improved products • Develops a partnership between engineering and customers • Creates a shared system vision for the whole design team • Combines with other development processes • Identifies both short-term and long-term product enhancements

22. Key Limits • Requires additional time and expense to set up customer site visits • Requires interviewing and analysis skills • Requires a method of tracking the large number of design ideas that result • Consider Design Rational (gIBIS)

23. Example of CI • Video of sample session with a eCommerce site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bam/uicourse/EHCIcontexualinquiry.mpg • See video of review of CI: http://ilserver.sp.cs.cmu.edu/view.pl?id=484 at timemark 01:06:03 • Issues to observe • Interview of work in progress, in “context” • Actual session of doing a task • Not an interview asking about possible tasks, etc. • Questions to clarify about routine, motivations • Why do certain actions: need intent for actions • Notice problems (“breakdowns”) • Notice what happens that causes users to do something (“triggers”) • E.g. appearance of error messages, other feedback, external events (phone ringing), etc.

24. Summary • Think about the user community first • Who they are, what their lifestyles are, what you’re assumptions about them are. • Selecting tasks • real tasks with reasonable functionality coverage • complete, specific tasks of what user wants to do • Contextual inquiry • way to answer the task analysis questions • interview & observe real users • use the master-apprentice model to get them to teach you