IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods course in Tallinn University, 1 February 2018

1. Contextual Inquiry
in Interaction
Design
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods

2. (Leinonen, Toikkanen, & Silfvast, 2008)

3. Contextual Inquiry methods
• Interviews
• User observations
• Literature review
• Competitive review

4. Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D, & Noessel,
C. (2014). About Face: The Essentials of
Interaction Design. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.

5. Interviews

6. Guidelines for user interviews
• Interview where the interaction happens
• Avoid a fixed set of questions
• Focus on the goal first, tasks second
• Avoid making the user a designer
• Avoid discussion of technology
• Avoid leading questions
• Ask for stories, demonstrations and a tour
• Direct the interview as new issues arise
• Interpretation: read between the lines
(Cooper, Reimann, Cronin, & Noessel, 2014)

7. Goal-oriented questions
• Goals — What makes a good day? A bad day?
• Opportunity — What activities currently waste your time?
• Priorities — What is most important to you?
• Information — What helps you make decisions?
(Cooper et al, 2014)

8. System-oriented questions
• Function — What are the most common things you do with
the product?
• Frequency — What parts of the product do you use most?
• Preference — What are your favorite aspects of the product?
What drives you crazy?
• Failure — How do you work around problems?
• Expertise — What shortcuts do you employ?
(Cooper et al, 2014)

9. Workflow-oriented questions
• Process — What did you do when you first came in today?
And after that?
• Occurrence and recurrence — How often do you do this?
What things do you do weekly or monthly, but not every
day?
• Exception — What constitutes a typical day? What would
be an unusual event?
(Cooper et al, 2014)

10. Attitude-oriented questions
• Aspiration — What do you see yourself doing five years
from now?
• Avoidance — What would you prefer not to do? What do
you procrastinate on?
• Motivation — What do you enjoy most about your job (or
lifestyle)? What do you always tackle first?
(Cooper et al, 2014)

11. User observations

12. Planning
• Establish objectives and information requirements
• Establish the times, places, and people who will be
observed
• Decide on the recording technique that you will use
(Cooper et al, 2014)

13. Running
• Make sure that those being observed are aware of the study
• Run a pilot observation
• Try to be unobtrusive
• Take notes and clarify later, if needed
• If possible, take a photo of the observation area
• Write down first impressions immediately after the observation
(Cooper et al, 2014)

14. Literature review

15. Literature review
• Business documents: marketing plans, brand strategy,
market research, user surveys, customer support data
• Technology specifications
• Research articles
• Related news in media, reviews
• Related posts and discussions in social media
(Cooper et al, 2014)

16. References
• Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D, & Noessel, C. (2014). About Face: The
Essentials of Interaction Design. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Leinonen, T., Toikkanen, T., & Silvfast, K. (2008). Software as Hypothesis:
Research-Based Design Methodology. In Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary
Conference on Participatory Design 2008 (pp. 61–70). Indianapolis, IN:
Indiana University.

17. Photos
• othree: ZOOM H5, https://www.flickr.com/photos/othree/15788446592/

18. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Hans Põldoja
hans.poldoja@tlu.ee
IFI7313.DT Interaction Design Methods
https://ifi7313.wordpress.com
Tallinn University
School of Digital Technologies