Introduction to Contextual Research

1
Introduction to Contextual Research
2
Human Centred Design

• Involves using information about users and their
  tasks to inform design
• Studying people in the context in which the new
  software will work reveals a lot of insights
  other techniques do not
• In addition to studying users, HCD techniques may
  also involve users in the design process

3
Why Involve Users?

• Expectation Management
• Ensure realistic expectations on the part of the
  user
• Ensures there are no surprises when the software
  is delivered
• Important when a new system is being introduced
  that changes existing work practices
• Ownership
• Feel they have a stake in the product which may
  help with acceptance.

4
Studying Context

• People use technologies to perform activities or
  tasks in specific contexts.
• To design usable and useful interactive systems
  we need to understand the variability in People,
  Tasks, Technology and Contexts.

5
People

• Individuals differ on a number of dimensions some
  of which are important for interaction design.
• Variation in senses e.g. colour blindness
• Cognitive Ability e.g. memory and attention span
• Domain Expertise e.g. novice and expert users

6
Tasks

• The nature or characteristics of the activities
  to be performed with the system
• Temporal task frequency, time pressures,
  interruptions.
• Cooperation carried out alone or with others?
• Complexity vague or well defined?

7
Technologies

• Input devices
• How people enter data and instructions to the
  system
• Output devices
• Characteristics of different displays
• Communication
• Between people and devices needs to be considered
• Content
• Concerns the data in the system and the form it
  takes.

8
Contexts

• Physical Environment
• Where the activity takes place, e.g. on the move
• Social Context
• Social norms affect the acceptability of designs
• Organisational Context
• The specific work context, e.g. large
  multinational, health service, SME.

9
Activity

• What contextual factors might you consider in
  designing a customer database for the following
  clients?

• Group B
• An insurance company call centre

• Group A
• A small multimedia start-up company

10
Researching the Context of Use

• Ethnographic methods
• Observation, interviews etc
• Explicit design methods
• Contextual Design (Holtzblatt and Beyer 2000)
• Practical design method the focuses on uncovering
  how people work so that new software meets their
  needs and supports their key activities.

11
Contextual Design

• A method for the design of generic products
• Keeps data focus on the client
• Supports the collection of contextual data and
  the distillation of common elements
• Intended to be used by a team
• Not really suitable for small projects or
  individual projects

12
The Role of a Contextual Designer

• To make sense of real life situations
• Identify stakeholders and their attributes
• Model the usage environments
• To uncover Implicit knowledge
• Identify activities and critical success factors
• To design a system that matches its users needs

13
Contextual Design Process
Interpretation Work Modelling
Contextual Interview
Affinity Notes
Flow
Cultural
Sequence
Physical
Artefact
User Environment Design
Consolidation and Affinity Diagram
Storyboarding
Visioning
14
Contextual Interview

• Focused interview and Observations
• Observe how work is actually undertaken
• Retrospective explanations (e.g. I noticed you
  checking the delivery address against bill
  address why was that?
• Master-apprentice model
• Two or three people in each work role should be
  interviewed

15
Key Principles

• Understand user needs in the context of their
  work
• Work with users as partners
• Create a shared understanding of what is going on
  by interpretations with the user.
• Probe for information from a clearly defined
  focus

16
Summary

• Involving and understanding users and their
  needs
• Leads to more appropriate software
• Helps manage user expectations
• Gives a sense of ownership and aids acceptance
• Contextual Design method provides models and
  techniques for gathering contextual data and
  representing this in a form to assist design