The document discusses simple methods for involving real users in product design and development through contextual design. It recommends conducting field studies to understand what users actually do and care about. Contextual design involves contextual inquiry, interpretation sessions, work models, affinity diagramming, visioning, storyboards, interaction patterns, paper prototyping, and agile development. The goal is to design products that support and extend user intentions by embodying users' work practices discovered through contextual inquiry in the field.

1. Simple Methods for Reliable User
Involvement
Hugh Beyer
hugh.beyer@incontextdesign.com
Karen Holtzblatt, CEO 978.823.0100 www.incontextdesign.com
Hugh Beyer, CTO info@incontextdesign.com www.innovationincool.com

2. UX and Agile: The promise
Agile says development in steps – and iterate
UX says work with users to create value – and iterate
Phase 0 The “ideal” product
ideal
sets direction
(requirements)
User Iteration
refines the interface
and function
What users really
need

3. Base principle for real user feedback
Real user feedback – Doesn’t come from:
 Product owners
 Stakeholders
 User surrogates
 Purchasers
 People who used to be users
 Demos
 Focus groups
And…
 You can’t put the user on the team
 Users can’t give you a design
U
Users can’t t ll you what th want
’t tell h t they t

4. Solving the problem of design
The system’s work
model has:
ode as
Language
System Structure
Features
Concepts
The user’s
work model has:
Language
Work Structure
Work Flow
Intention
Result
Design the optimal match:
 Products and systems
embody work practice
 Design must support and
extend user intent

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

6. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
Field t di
Fi ld studies yield
i ld
5 Storyboards
real understanding
of what customers
actually do and
6 Interaction Patterns & UED
what they really
y y
care about
7 Paper Prototype Interviews
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

7. Contextual Design
U21 Flow Model
1 Contextual Inquiry Discuss open litigation
Board of Directors
Administrative Assistant
General Counsel Discuss open
litigation
SOP
Ask for legal advice Email
2 Interpretation Session Business
Unit
Managers
U21
SOP
Outside
Provide legal advice Senior Corporate Counsel Counsel
Hand deliver SOP Open email to see
Discuss legal options
U3-1 request
and log in info
TRIGGER: 
3 Work Models & Affinity She wants to understand HR
what her boss is doing.
doing
Department
Receive email
from partner
Open email to see
request
U5 and log in info
U3-2 Sequence: 
Open CCH Online
Does she advise her boss Keyword 
on how to answer or Search
4 Visioning U3-3 manage his schedule? Pg. 1 of 3
Type log in info

Log in doesn’t work
Can we design a better way 
for her to keep informed? Re-type user name
and password in
5 Storyboards
Intent: Restrict
Domain to get

from email
Decide to search in
Cross-functional team relevant results
Fed

interprets the data to Intent: Account for
research time
Select search form

capture issues and Remembered to
6
Intent: Say what I
start
Interaction Patterns & UED want in computer
terms client
tracker
model activities Type complex
keyword
k d
search using
Creates a shared Boolean
7 Paper Prototype Interviews perspective of the
data and implications
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

8. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
Consolidates data across all
5 Storyboards customers reveals the big
picture of the market: key
issues, tasks, values,
6 Interaction Patterns & UED collaboration, work process,
and technology impact
7 Paper Prototype Interviews Find the opportunities to
guide innovation.
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

9. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
5 Storyboards
Must have
6 Interaction Patterns & UED
models for Agile
7 Paper Prototype Interviews
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

10. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models
4 Visioning
5 Storyboards Facilitated group
ideation session –
with evaluation
6 Interaction Patterns & UED
First immerse in the
data then generate
concepts for new and
7 Paper Prototype Interviews
existing products
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

11. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
Develop the details of the
5 Storyboards
new to-be activities
Clarify function, user
6 Interaction Patterns & UED
experience, automation
rules, data, and technology
based on the vision
7 Paper Prototype Interviews
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

12. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
Represent the system
5 Storyboards
structure, requirements,
and user interface layout
6 Interaction Patterns & UED
Ensure consistency,
coherence, and a smooth
user experience product
7 Paper Prototype Interviews
wide.
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

13. Contextual Design
1 Contextual Inquiry
2 Interpretation Session
3 Work Models & Affinity
4 Visioning
5 Storyboards Validate product concepts,
process changes, and user
experience while testing user
6 Interaction Patterns & UED reception
Or bring out concept boards
7 Paper Prototype Interviews to validate direction before
detailed design
8 Visual Design & Agile Stories

14. UX and Agile: The promise
Agile says development in steps – and iterate
UX says work with users to create value – and iterate
The “ideal” product
ideal
Phase 0: What do
we write on the
story cards?
Contextual Inquiry
Consolidation
Visioning End of sprint:
Paper prototyping What does the
During sprint: Get
user think?
the details right
Field interviews
Paper prototyping

15. Discovering customer work
Di i t k

16. The Contextual interview
The interviewing process of
Contextual Design
 One-on-one 2-hour field interview
 Gathering detailed information about
work practice
p
 In the workplace while people work
 Through observation and discussion
of on-going work
on going
 Based on a model of apprenticeship
to the customer

17. Contextual Inquiry principles
Key concepts to guide understanding the customer
 Context: Collect data in the context of people’s work
p p
• Go to your user's workplace
• Talk to your users while they work
 Partnership: Work with customers as partners in inquiry
• Help users articulate their work practice
• Let them lead
 Interpretation: Uncover the meaning and implications of customer action and
language
• Create a shared understanding
• Draw out the implications
p
 Focus: Listen and probe from a clear intention
• Know your purpose
• Challenge your assumptions

18. 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
 Pay attention to non-verbal communication
Ongoing work versus summary experience
 People tend to give summaries
 Ongoing work is never summarized
Stay concrete don’t abstract
concrete, don t
 Ongoing work
 Retrospective account — from the last two weeks
 Look at artifacts

19. Dos and don’ts: Context principle
Don’t Do
Let the user talk in the air or talk in Make talk concrete:
abstractions • Follow actual work and specific cases from
recent past
• Get or draw artifacts; annotate with intent
and usage
Allow the user to summarize a story Reconstruct a situation:
• Back up the user when he skips a step
•H
Hypothesize steps to prompt the user
h i h
Discuss feature requests out of the Probe to understand what actual work
context of usage situation prompted the request
Follow the real work example
Ask “What would you have done next?” Avoid predictions of future scenarios
when the user did not actually do it in Only
O l care about what is h
b t h t i happening now
i
this case
Do a retrospective account of past work

20. What is partnership?
Partnership as relationship
 The user is the expert
• They know everything about their
work but can’t tell you Withdrawal
 So follow their lead
 Help the users articulate and see
their work practice
Return
Avoid ineffective interview styles
 The Traditional Interviewer
 The Expert/Novice
 The Guest/Host

21. Dos and don’ts: Partnership principle
Don’t Do
Take the expert role: When asked for tool tips, ask how he/she
• Do not teach or tell user how to do their would have done without you
jobs
Give tips at the end
• Do not give tips on tool use
Invite
I it users to educate you
t d t
Create a distant relationship: Reconstruct a situation:
• Sit back, have a reserved attitude • Lean forward, be fascinated
• Be apologetic or timid • Be confiding and genuine
• Be overbearing
Create a formal relationship Be nosy, overcome formality
Sit on the “visitor” side of the desk while Pull up a chair next to the user and
the user is talking his/her computer screen. Make sure you
can see what’s happening
what s

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

23. Dos and don’ts: Interpretation principle
Don’t Do
Just watch what happens and record it Look for patterns, intents, issues, and the
role people play in the work, and then
share them with the user
Just ask “yes” or “no” questions Offer hypothesis that invite elaboration
Just ask “why?” or open-ended Use metaphors to explain what the work
questions is like and ask the user if you get it right

24. What is focus?
Know your purpose
 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
Probe to expand focus
 Surprises and contradictions
 “Nods” — What you assume
is true
 What you do not know
 The problem behind solutions
Share
 Interpretations for validation
 Design ideas for co-design

25. Dos and don’ts: Focus principle
Don’t Do
Hide your focus Show your focus:
• The user can help find relevant cases and issues
Focus on the software, configuration or Focus on work; identify cases in the focus to
hardware pursue
Pursue issues or events outside your focus Expand focus based on what you see the user do
Gloss over irrelevant events introduced by the user
Remember: It is not rude to not engage the users in
things that are not in focus. You don’t want to teach
g
the user that you are interested in irrelevant
information.
Dismiss issues because you don’t understand
y Probe things y don’t understand or are
g you
them surprised by
Talk from an implicit list of questions you want Follow the work, discuss how the work is
answered structured, not topics in your head
Nod without asking in order to verify everything Share your interpretations of their words and work
you think you understand even if it is obvious

26. Key concepts in Contextual Inquiry
Be an apprentice
Context
 Go to your user's workplace
 Talk to your users while they work
Partnership
 Help users articulate their work practice
 Let them lead
Interpretation
 Create a shared understanding
 Draw out the implications
Focus
 Know your purpose
 Challenge your assumptions

27. Structure of the interview
Traditional interview steps Observe and co-interpret
(5-10 minutes) (1 ½ hours)
 Introduce yourself  Take notes
 Reveal your focus  Follow your focus
 Be nosy
y
 Promise confidentiality
 Interruptions are data too
 Start recording
 Get an overview of their work Wrap-up
(10-15 i t )
(10 15 minutes)
 Look for a starting point
 Create a large interpretation of
 Deal with opinions about tools your learning about
their role
Switch to contextual interview
 Ask “pet” questions
 Reset the rules  Give tips on system use
 Th k th user
Thank the

28. What to record
Record as much detail as possible
 User’s words
 User’s actions, step by step
 Coordination with others
 Indications of the culture and feelings of the user
 Your shared interpretation of the meaning and intent of actions
 Collect artifacts and annotate with usage
 Draw the user’s physical environment and annotate with usage

29. Exercise: Conference Attendance Planning
What does it take to plan conference attendance?
Discover:
 How the user planned attendance prior to arrival
• retrospective account
t ti t
 How the user planned today
 Plan tomorrow (if not yet done)
• Ongoing work
Look at:
 A tif t
Artifacts
 Annotations
 App usage
pp g

30. Contextual Design fulfils Phase 0
Release
Phase 0 Development Deployment
Planning
g
Field Research
• Contextual Inquiry Visioning Concept Validation
• Work models • Low-fidelity prototyping
 Determines who the customer is and what to build
 Necessary precursor to Agile Development
 Result: Tested and validated product structure and features

31. Example schedule of CD Agile Phase 0
Week 1 – Gather data from 8-10 users User-centered Agile
print
 Compressed into a short
Sp
Phase 0
Week 2 – Consolidate data
• For constrained project
focus only!
Week 3 – Vision and storyboard
Phase 0 sprints
Sprint
using Scrum as a
process framework
Week 4 – UED and UI
Week 5 – Release planning & validation
(2-4 users)
rint
Spr
Week 6 – Validation & redesign
nt
Sprin
Development Sprint 1

32. Contextual Design enables Agile development
Release Development
Phase 0 Deployment
p y
Planning sprint | sprint | sprint | sprint | sprint
Detailed In-the-moment Quick user
design guidance feedback
 Sprint planning – Detailed planning session to define tasks for the sprint
 Sprint development – The coding and UX work of the sprint
 Sprint review – End of sprint reflection

33. Put the customer at the
center of the design