2. Contextual Inquiry
What is Contextual Inquiry ?
Contextual Inquiry is a field data gathering technique for examining and
understanding end users and their workplace, tasks, issues and preferences.
Need for a Contextual Inquiry
The best way to get to know users and their tasks is to spend time with them,
in their own environments, watching them do the things that your Application/
Website or a Product is going to support or enable.
This knowledge could be used to make more informed decisions in the Design
Process.
3. In the context of User Centered Design Process
• Design
• Test & Refine
• Evaluate your current user
• Learn about your user
• Conduct Task Analysis
• Develop personas
• Plan
• Analyze
• Write Scenarios
• Set Usability goals
• Questionnaire
• Contextual Inquiry
• Online Surveys
• Interviews
• Focus Group
Contextual Inquiry
4. In the context of User Centered Design Process
Contextual Inquiry
5. Analysis Early Design Late Design Implementation Deployment
GoalsMethodsArtifacts
Explore design
space
Paper prototypes
Task scenarios
Refine selected
design
Empirical study
UI guidelines
Functional test
Functional
prototype
Implement and
integrate
Empirical study
UI guidelines
Functional test
Functional
interface & system
Gather
requirements for
next release
Field study
Critical incident
walkthroughs
Interviews and
surveys
Usability report
Contextual inquiry
Surveys
Observations
Interviews
Task analysis
User descriptions
Affinity diagrams
Design brief
Task descriptions
Identify:
Usability goals
Content
Users & tasks
Sketching &
brainstorming
Cognitive walkthrough
GOMS
Heuristic evaluation
Action analysis
In the context of User Centered Design Process
Contextual Inquiry
6. When is Contextual Inquiry appropriate
In the early stages of development
When the environment in which users work really influences how they use the
product
When you want to know about work practices in unfamiliar domains (i.e.
lawyers looking for cases in a digital library)
CI is appropriate whenever you need to develop or communicate an understanding
of the users of an existing or proposed system.
Contextual Inquiry
7. When is Contextual Inquiry appropriate - Examples
Operation Theatre Call Center
Stock Exchange Trading ATM Machine
Contextual Inquiry
8. Contextual Inquiry is NOT:
An Interrogation
A formal Interview
A forum to tell users they are doing it “all wrong” and how to do it right
A forum to tell users how to do their work or how technology could make it easier
Contextual Inquiry
9. What do you learn from Contextual Inquiry ?
Seeing the user's environment can be very useful. By going to the user, you see
the user's environment and the actual technology the user works with.
You can answer questions like these:
• What is the social environment like?
• Are there people around to help the user?
• What is the physical environment like?
• Is the user on broadband or on a modem?
• How does the user conducts a task?
• Does being online tie up a phone line so the user wants to be on and off the
Web quickly?
• What are the values, issues and concerns of the users?
Contextual Inquiry
10. Contextual Inquiry is difficult because
Users may be shy, or even suspicious
Users may not want you to see them make errors or other mistakes
Users do things differently when people are observing them work
You are not sure what to look for
You collect an enormous amount of data
Contextual Inquiry
11. Contextual Inquiry is useful because
You learn about the users and their tasks
You learn about the workflow
You learn about the constraints on the design
You gain design inspiration
You establish a trusting relationship
You inform the design of the system
Contextual Inquiry
12. Few differentiators
Contextual Inquiry is more of a discovery process than an evaluation process
Key difference between Contextual Inquiry and Interview is that Contextual Inquiry
focuses more on observing the task and less on discussing how it is done.
Contextual Inquiry
13. How many people are needed?
Two people should be involved in any site visits, if possible. It is not possible to
capture all the available information, but using two people maximizes the data
returned.
At least two people should be involved in analyzing the data.
Contextual Inquiry
16. Stages of Contextual Inquiry
• Planning
- Schedule your visits
- Workplace & Legal issues
Planning | Conduct Contextual Inquiry | Analysis
- Identify appropriate users
> To get the most out of contextual enquiry, you need to make sure
you visit the right people
> Avoid non-representative users
> Identify major user groups
> Try to visit at least 3 or 4 individuals within each major user group
Contextual Inquiry
17. Stages of Contextual Inquiry
• Planning
- Workplace & Legal issues
Planning | Conduct Contextual Inquiry | Analysis
- Identify appropriate users
- Schedule your visits
> Site visits require intensive concentration and can be very tiring
> Having two people also makes data analysis easier
> Re-confirm appointments the day before each visit
Contextual Inquiry
18. Stages of Contextual Inquiry
• Planning
Planning | Conduct Contextual Inquiry | Analysis
- Identify appropriate users
- Schedule your visits
- Workplace & Legal issues
> Get approval from the management
> If you'll be listening in on telephone calls (for example, in a call centre)
you will probably be legally obliged to let callers know that their calls
are being monitored
> If you are visiting minors, you will need to get permission from parents
or guardians
Contextual Inquiry
19. Stages of Contextual Inquiry
• Conduct Contextual Inquiry
- Learn about the users and their tasks
- Observe how user accomplishes tasks
- Observe the physical environment
- Observe the social environment
Planning | Conduct Contextual Inquiry | Analysis
- Learn about the users values, issues and preferences
- Note down your learning and observations
- Send thank you letters to the users
- Pay particular attention to interruptions to the flow of work
Contextual Inquiry
20. Stages of Contextual Inquiry
• Analysis
- Enter your notes in an electronic format with the lowest possible granularity
- Identify the tasks that were carried out
- Make a list of things users explicitly requested, or that you noticed would
have helped him
- Consider using affinity diagramming to group all related activities
Planning | Conduct Contextual Inquiry | Analysis
- Avoid unsupported conclusions
- Be prepared to contact users by phone to verify any observations which are doubtful
- Attach the raw data – notes, pictures or artifacts, summaries you made of
responses, etc.
Contextual Inquiry
21. Guidelines for Conducting Contextual Inquiry
• Remember that the purpose of site visits is to learn from your users.
• Try to minimize disruption. However, try not to accept a time-slot that will not
enable you to see the work being done in a typical fashion.
• Avoid preconceptions about the users and their tasks.
• Ensure that you do not give negative signals to the users, either verbally or by
your body language.
•If you don’t understand something, or if something happened too quickly,
you may ask the person we are visiting to repeat or explain.
Ask questions at appropriate times. For example, do not interrupt telephone
or other conversations, but keep questions until the end.
Contextual Inquiry
22. • Do not prompt users to carry out tasks differently, or in an order other than the
one they use normally.
• Do not rely on users' recollection of how they carry out tasks. Instead, ask
them to carry out the actual tasks while you are on site.
• Be respectful of your users, their employers and colleagues.
• Be flexible. It is common to arrive on site to find that users' expectations do not
match your plan, no matter how much effort you may have put into
communicating your requirements. Be prepared to make the most of available
resources.
Guidelines for Conducting Contextual Inquiry
Contextual Inquiry
23. Site visit materials
When carrying out site visits, you will need the following materials:
•A list of representative users. Include both expert and novice users in your
visits.
•Logging sheets. Expect to make copious notes. You may consider audio- or
video-recording; however the unpredictable nature of the activity often makes
this difficult.
Contextual Inquiry
