1. Contextual Inquiry
Understand your users
Dave Flotree
dave.flotree@incontextdesign.com
Karen Holtzblatt, CEO
978.823.0100
Hugh Beyer, CTO
info@incontextdesign.com
www.incontextdesign.com
www.innovationincool.com
Twitter: @incontextdesign

2. Contextual Inquiry
Provides reliable, detailed knowledge of what people
actually do and what they really care about

3. Contextual Inquiry
A set of principles, not steps
Context
Partnership
Interpretation
Focus

4. The principle of Context
What people say they do
And what they actually do
Are different

5. What is Context?
Get as close to the work as possible
 Go to the customer
 Interview while they are working
 Be grounded in real objects and events
Ongoing work versus summary experience
 People tend to give summaries
 Ongoing work is never summarized
Stay concrete, don’t abstract
 Ongoing work. “Show me…”
 Recent retrospective account . “When was the last time you…”
 Look at artifacts

6. Don’t summarize, don’t abstract
What do you do when you go grocery
shopping?

7. The principle of Partnership
People know
everything about
what they do…
They just can’t
tell you

8. What is Partnership?
Partnership as relationship
 The user is the expert
 So follow their lead
 Help the users articulate and
see their work practice
Withdrawal
Avoid ineffective interview styles
 The Traditional Interviewer
 The Expert/Novice
 The Guest/Host
Return
Apprenticeship is the preferred model
 Listen, learn, be humble, don’t judge
 And assume that people do things for a reason
 Return to the ongoing work
• It always keeps you in the apprenticeship model

9. The principle of Interpretation
It’s not the facts
that matter…
It’s the
interpretation of
the facts

10. What is Interpretation?
Interpretation is the data
 A shared understanding of what is going on
Customer
 Offer interpretations
• Don’t ask open-ended
questions
Fact
Listen for the “No”
 Huh?
 Umm... could be
tune the interpretation
Hypothesis
 “They” would like it
 “Yes” comes with elaboration
Implication
 Watch for non-verbal clues
 Check your design ideas as they occur
Design
Idea

11. The principle of Focus
“What you know, you know,
what you don't know, you don't
know.
This is true wisdom.”
- Confucius

12. What is Focus?
Know your purpose
entering focus
what
we make
up
 We all have an entering focus
• A set of preconceived assumptions and beliefs
 Drive interviews with your project focus
• A clear understanding of what work you are trying to
understand
 Expand your focus
• Challenge your assumptions, probe the unexpected
what we see
Probe to expand focus
 Surprises and contradictions
 “Nods” — What you assume is true
 What you do not know
 The problem behind solutions
user’s world
what we miss

13. Contextual Inquiry
Context
Partnership
Interpretation
Focus

14. How to get started
It doesn’t take many interviews
 3-5 people who do the same activity can characterize markets of millions
 Rule of thumb for numbers of interviewees
• 4 for each work role; 3 in each significant context (e.g., skill level, tech savvy)
• 3 organizations of each significant type (e.g., size, geography)
Make the data you bring back actionable
 Use a process like an interpretation session with other people
 Create session notes (virtual Post-Its) and diagrams you can use to…
Build an affinity diagram and other work models as appropriate
 Reveals underlying pattern: intent, strategy, structure, and scope
 Shows what matters to the entire population, keeping variations that matter
 Eliminates focusing on individual users
 Provides real data for design thinking, personas, scenarios, user stories

15. Define & Validate Concepts
Requirements & Solutions
Contextual Design – user-centered design process
1
Contextual Inquiry
2
Interpretation Session
3
Work Models &
Affinity Diagramming
4
Visioning
5
Storyboards
6
Interaction Patterns &
User Environment Design
7
Paper Prototype Interviews
8
Visual Design & Agile Stories
Talk to your customers in the field
Interpret the data as a team to capture key issues & activities
Consolidate data across customers for a full market view
Generate new products & the next product concepts steeped in data
Work out the details of particular tasks and roles
Define system structure, function, content, & user interaction
Mock up the interface to validate direction and UI with customers
Design and test the final look; Base stories on validated function

16. 
We developed the industry-leading
customer-centered design process

Our clients are industry leaders – including
other design firms

Our experience spans a wide range
of work practices, industries and
technologies

We have a proven track record creating
solutions for the people who use them
“The only method I have seen that really tells
you how to go out and collect customer data,
and then what to do about it.” - Don Norman
“The only generative method in the field.”
- Ben Shneiderman