Introduction to User eXperience research with focus on stages of Contextual Inquiry process.

1. Introduction to UX Research
Fundamentals of Contextual Inquiry
Marc Niola
UX Consultant
mniola@digitalcunzai.com

2. Why UX Research is Important
• Users often use products in the most unintend-
ed way: Can be a source of innovation
• When user research is part of the design process
it tends to breakdown silos: Create the co-create
• Market studies and surveys have its limits:
Putting user research into context is essential
• Talking to users can prevent bias: You are not the
user

3. Beware of Bias

4. Biases In Usability Testing
• Hawthorne Effect • "If you've asked me about
– People behavior different it, it must be important“
when being observed – People will over think opinion
• Task-Selection Bias a certain question
– People make assumptions • Note Taking
• Social Desirability – Heightens peoples self-
consciousness
– People don’t like to look bad
• Availability • Tech-Savvy
– People’s technical ability
– Optimal sample population varies greatly
often unavailable, can skew
result • Recency & Primacy Effects
• Honorariums – People tend to weigh recent
events more than earlier
– Can motivate people to cheat events
or over perform
* Every study has bias, but that doesn't mean it's not worth doing

5. Why UX Research is Essential
• Helps frame the
context: the Where,
When and How
• Helps frame the user:
the Who
• Helps frame product
objectives with user
needs: the So What

6. Research Objectives
• Understand how the user actually uses product in
real-world situations, not stimulations
• Identify source areas that advance and inhibit
efficiency and frustrations
• Understand social and work environment
Discoveries made during the research process
should inform and shape the design and
development process.

7. User Research

8. Types of UX Research
• Contextual Inquiry • Remote Ethnography
• Expert Review • Task Analysis
• A/B Testing • Eye Tracking
• Card Sorting • fMRI Brain Imaging
• Surveys • Focus Groups

9. Research helps identify user needs
• How do users accomplish goals: what
tools, work-arounds and method do they use.
• What are the constraints and affordances of
the environment the user exist in.
• How do the needs of the user effect their
temperament and ability to cooperate.
• Learn by watching: how do users currently
accomplish their tasks.

10. Contextual Inquiry

11. What is Context Inquiry
• Context Inquiry is of on-site data collection
method used to better understand users’
motivations, desires, intents, and strategies in
order to design products and systems that
meet both users’ and business’ objectives.
• Contextual inquiry reveals what people
actually do, why they do it that way, latent
needs, and core values.
- incontextdesign.com/contextual-design.com

12. Benefits & Limitations of Contextual Inquiry
Benefits Limitations
• Helps identify behavior • Intrusive to participant/user
patterns • Time-consuming
• Helps to make and validate • Travel involved
design decisions • Smaller sample size does
• Helps reach optimal design not provide statistical
solution faster and cheaper significance
• Helps build rapport and • Data analysis can be time
understanding of actually consuming
users • Resource-
• Helps build effective personas intensive, expensive

13. The How to
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
• Recruit: who is the audience;
• Plan: what is your focus;
• Observe: learn by watching;
• Analyze: look for patterns and outliners;
• Evanglize the finds: champion findings, but don’t
fall in love with them – data is dynamic;
• Iterate: interval depends, but creating a
continuous feedback loop between users is ideal.

14. The When to
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
• At the beginning of most projects Contextual
Inquiry is an essential process that establishes
a customer/user feedback loop with dev team
that helps validate difficult design decisions.
• The feedback loop provides the dev team with
direction, insights and barometer for progress
during the project.

15. Before you leave the office
Contextual Inquiry Fundamentals:
• Take some time to get to know test participant
before meeting: aim to relax participant so they
act as natural as possible
• Establish rapport and communication styles with
test participants: small talk, build trust
Inquiry process should be motivated by the
participant’s work and process and not a pre-
arranged script of questions.

16. Engagement Approaches
• Master/apprentice
– The participant is the master and interviewer is
the apprentice eager to learn their craft
• Partnership Approaches
– Interviewer follows participant, and helps to to Adopt
facilitate the demonstration of hidden or obvious
sources of work flow
• Interviewer/interviewee
– Interviewer arrives with list of questions and
proceeds to systematically ask participant for
answers
Approaches
• Expert/novice to Avoid
– Participant is the established expert and
interviewer is passive neophyte

17. Inquiry Process

18. Stages of Inquiry Process: Intro | Observation | Wrap-up
Break the ice
– Build rapport and trust quickly
– Set a pleasant and relaxed tone
Be conscious of body language
– Limit negative signals to user
– Emphasize interviewers role
Be flexible
– Be prepared for curve balls once on-site
– Users can be nervous about session and exhibit
unusual behavior, try to relieve the stress

19. Stages of Inquiry Process: Intro | Observation | Wrap-up
• Ask for demonstrations not explanations
during moments of frustration and delight
• Observe the social and physical environment
• Observe the work flow participants use to
accomplishes task
Record observations (LiveScribe for combining
audio recording with note-taking)

20. Stages of Inquiry Process: Intro | Observation | Wrap-up
Ending the session
– To close the session, ask questions that were
saved during the session that would have
unnaturally disrupted the work flow.
– Summarize the insights learned for participant to
clarify or correct
– Ask participant how they felt during the interview
and what could be done to improve session.

21. Analysis Interpreting
• cc
the data
‘It’s not the facts that matter…
It’s the interpretation of the facts’
- incontext

22. Interpreting the Data
Do not take participants words on face value
– Most people know what they want, they just have a
hard time explaining it.
Analyze and synthesis data
(audio, video, notes, interview questions) and look
for connections that uncover why user exhibited
certain behaviors
– Focus on actual events (their sequence), non-verbal
cues and tools used.
Look for patterns and categorize into theme clusters

23. Affinity Diagram
Collaborative Analysis with Affinity Diagrams

24. Team Analysis: Affinity Diagrams
Affinity Diagrams help create collaborative team
brainstorming sessions.
– By organizing field interview data into short
narratives team members can discuss and
organize data into meaningful relationships.
Getting the dev team to collaborative discuss
user needs and product challenges reduces
documentation and deepens understanding.

25. Post Analysis
In today’s information rich world the most
successful teams are collaborative, multi-
disciplinary and transparent.
– Breaking silos and getting team members out
from behind their desk and talking to one another
helps boost productive by building
cohesiveness, ownership and accountability.
Giving teams boundaries on what to discuss also
helps improve focus and manageability.

26. Thank you!
Marc Niola
UX Consultant
mniola@digitalcunzai.com