Contextual Design

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Contextual Design

• Jenny Linnerud
• Statistics Norway

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Why?

• Central IT
• Generic solutions for the entire organisation
• Lack local knowledge
• Good exchange of best IT practise
• Identify common problems and provide common
  solutions
• ?

• Local IT
• Specific solutions for local needs
• Good understanding of the local needs
• Little exchange of IT experience
• Reinvent solutions
• ?

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Contextual Inquiry

• Context
• Go where the work is to get the best data
• Span time by replaying past events in detail
• Keep the user concrete by exploring ongoing work
• Partnership
• Help users articulate their work experience
• Alternate between watching and probing
• Interpretation
• Interpretation is the assignment of meaning to
  observation
• Ways that users say no Huh?!, Ummm ... could be
• Focus
• Clear focus steers the conversation
• Focus reveals detail but conceals the unexpected
  expand your focus
• surprises and contradictions

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Contextual Interview C3 p42 -66

• What do the users want? Ask them!
• Identify the users
• Go to their place of work
• Observe them working
• When you are watching the work happen , learning
  it is easy
• Seeing the work reveals
• what matters
• details
• structure
• Talk to them about what they are doing

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Contextual Interview

• The contextual interview has 4 parts
• the conventional interview
• introduce yourself and the project
• get to know the user and their issues
• the transition
• explain the new rules of a contextual interview
• You are the master. I am the apprentice.
• the contextual interview proper
• observe and probe ongoing work
• the wrap-up
• feedback a comprehensive interpretation

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Mock Interview8 groups of 3 people 30 minutes

• What are we going to build?
• A system for documentation of variables.
• Why are we building it?
• What is the corporate VISION?
• Who will use it?
• What user groups do we need to interview?
• What are their backgrounds?
• How will we capture this?
• What will it contain?
• Capture as many DETAILS as possible here.
• What should we be able to do with the contents?
• Functionality
• What else will it need to communicate with?
• Links and interfaces to other systems

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Interpretation Session C7 p128 - 136

• Go back to the project team with the results from
  the interviews and try to reach a common
  interpretation of these.
• Look for related issues
• Look for duplicate issues
• Clarify questions in further interviews
• Keep interviewing until nothing new comes up
• Now what?
• -gt Structure the information

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The Affinity Diagram C9 p154 163

• The affinity diagram organises the individual
  notes captured during interpretation sessions
  into a hierarchy revealing common issues and
  themes.

green group label summarising an area of
concern
pink group label summarising a set of groups
blue group label summarising points below
white individual point captured in
interpretation
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The Vision
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Pilot system
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Prototyping C19 p393-4114 groups of 5-6 people
30 minutes

• Input user requirements specification based on
  interviews and affinity diagram
• The paper prototype
• the screen
• windows
• pull-down menus
• tool palettes and button bars
• radio buttons, check boxes, controls
• dialog boxes
• window contents
• anything that represents your intent and isnt
  too complicated to create or use is fair game

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Testing

• After prototyping an IT person should be able to
  write a functional requirement specification for
  the subsystem.
• Based on this document it should be possible for
  an IT person to build the subsystem.
• Testing should be conducted based on user
  scenarios.
• The subsystem (including documentation) should
  then be adjusted according to the users input and
  retested until the users are satisfied.
• The above phases (prototyping, testing) should be
  repeated until the entire system has been built
  to the satisfaction of the users.
• The updated user and functional requirement
  specifications can form the basis for the system
  documentation

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User participation in contextual design
Total people 42
new not involved in any previous step
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Reference

• Contextual Design -
• Defining Customer-Centred Systems
• by Hugh Beyer Karen Holtzblatt,
• Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1998