![]() ![]() Context – as you might expect, the interview must take place in the context of use.The Four Principles of Contextual InquiryĬontextual interviews are based on four guiding principles: This is particularly important in age of mobile internet where context can be so varied. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 3.0īy seeing what users do in context, it is easier to see how our products are really used. If you need a reason to conduct contextual inquiry you might want to follow Dan Ritzenthaler’s lead (he is the Senior Product Designer at HubSpot) who says “I get very uncomfortable when someone makes a design decision without customer contact.”Īuthor/Copyright holder: Petar Milošević. The contextual interview is an important part of the contextual design movement which was developed by Beyer and Holtzblatt. However, the first complete description of the method was almost certainly proposed in 1990 by Wixon, Holtzblatt and Knox in 1990 though Holtzblatt and Beyer’s description in 1995 is considered to be the most complete. It was first alluded to in a paper by Whiteside, Bennet and Holtzblatt in 1988 which examined the use of qualitative research in design projects. The exact history of the contextual interview in user research is a little murky. They can help bridge insight gaps from the designer’s viewpoint, expose shortcomings in design considerations, and ultimately optimize the overall design of a product. Thus, as the designer’s role “reverses” so as to examine how well a user has grasped the design’s intricacies, issues arising during the interview can also flag problem areas and instances of appropriation (where users find adjunct or unexpected uses for the piece in question).Ĭontextual interviews are particularly beneficial in that it enables the interviewer to gather information in the moment and context of use-especially advantageous when researching complex systems or work processes. The participant is treated as an expert on how to use the product, and is sometimes asked to explain how to interact with it as though explaining it to a novice user. ![]() A contextual interview starts with a one-on-one user interview, followed up with an observation session where the interviewer observes how the research participant uses the product or service. A contextual interview session typically consists of a mix between a traditional user interview and observations of how the research participants use a product or service in the relevant context.Ĭontextual interviews were originally developed to research how complex systems were used in the context of work however, they have since become used more generally for understanding how people use technology in certain contexts. A contextual interview, or contextual inquiry, is a user research method specifically designed to provide insight into the environment or context in which a design will be used. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |