An introduction to Contextual Design and different perspectives of Context

1. Designing in Context
Thomas Grill
mailto:thomas.grill@sbg.ac.at
10.11.2011
Human Computer Interaction & Usability Unit http://icts.sbg.ac.at

2. ● Overview
• ICT&S Center - University of Salzburg
• Context
• Contextual Design
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3. ● ICT&S Center
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4. ● ICT&S Center
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Context ...
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5. Mattias Sahlén
The Context Is Everything
http://www.behance.net/mattiassahlen

6. "For me context is the key from that comes the understanding
of everything."
http://www.kennethnoland.com

7. 1 Context what?
·
!
Origin: 1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin contextus a joining
together, scheme, structure, equivalent to contex(ere) to join by
weaving (con- con- + texere to plait, weave) + -tus suffix of v.action;
compare text
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/context
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8. 1 Context definition
Context is any information that can be used to
characterize the situation of an entity. An entity is a
person, place or object that is considered relevant to
the interaction between a user and an application,
including the user and application themselves.
What is it when we are talking about context ...
Anind!K. Dey, Gregory!D. Abowd, Peter!J. Brown, Nigel Davies, Mark Smith, and Pete Steggles. Towards a better understanding of context and context-awareness. In
HUC ’99: Proceedings of the 1st international symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing, pages 304–307, London, UK, 1999. Springer-Verlag.
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9. Literary Design Leisure
Context Context Context
Work Author’s
Context Context
Device
Context User
Social Context
Context Historical
Virtual
Emotional Application Context
Reality
Context Context
Context
Mobile
Context Information Task
Situational
Context Context Context
Cultural Environ-
Learning
Context Behavioral mental
Context
Context Context

10. Rachel Hinman - The mobile frontier (to appear in 2012)
http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mobile-design/
Mobile Context - The Chapter that Nearly Killed Me

11. Literary
User Context Design Context Context
Environ- Author’s
Work mental Context
Virtual
Context Context
Emotional Reality
Context Context Historical
Mobile Context
Application
Social Context Context
Context
Situational
Context
Information
Cultural Leisure Task Context
Context Context Context
Behavioral Learning Device
Context Context Context

12. Literary
User Context Design Context Context
Environ- Author’s
Work mental Context
Virtual
Context Context
Emotional Reality
Context Context Historical
Mobile Context
Social Context
Context
Situational Application
Context Context
Cultural Leisure Task
Context Information
Context Context
Device Context
Behavioral Learning Context
Context Context

13. 1 Modelling context
•A traditional way to “describe” context
• Usually focus on “interactive systems”
• Themost of the models model such an interactive system
where relevant context are regarded
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14. 1 Schmidt et al. 1999
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15. 1 Schmidt et al. 1999
Albrecht Schmidt, Michael Beigl, and Hans-Werner Gellersen. There is more to context than location. Computers and Graphics, 23(6):893–901, 1999.
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16. 1 Abowd & Mynatt 2000
• The 5 Ws of Context
• Who – the user and other people in the environment
• What – human activity perception and interpretation
• Where – location and the perceived path of the user
• When – time as an index and elapsed time
• Why – reason a person is doing something
Gregory!D. Abowd and Elizabeth!D. Mynatt. Charting past, present, and future research in ubiquitous computing.
ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact., 7(1):29–58, 2000.
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17. 1 Tarasevich 2003
Location, Orientation (of
objects)
Physical properties
Brightness and noise levels
Availability and quality (of
devices and communications)
Location, Orientation Tasks & Goals
Personal properties Events in the environment
Mental state
Physical health
Expectations
Peter Tarasewich. Towards a comprehensive model of context for mobile and wireless computing. In Proc. of AMCIS 2003, pages 114–124, 2003.
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18. 1 Bradley & Dunlop 2005
Nicholas A. Bradley and Mark D. Dunlop. Toward a multidisciplinary model of context to support context-aware computing. Hum.-Comput. Interact., 20(4):403–
446, 2005.
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19. 1 Grill & Tscheligi 2011
Situational Context
Situational Context
User Context/Personal
Knowledge
Context Experiences
UX
Emotions user part of
environmental,
Intention
physical context
Goals
sense & perceive
Intrinsic
sense & perceive
Factors
Extrinsic Extrinsic
Factors Factors
cognitive social context
process
information context
interacts with
person
webservice GUI User Interface mobile ubicomp device
Application Context
sense
System
implements
WWW environmental,
physical context
sense
Data-
base
interpret interpret Temporal
information context functionality / features social context Context
future
tn+1
tn
past
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20. 1 Designing the mobile context ...
NFL Mobile Commercial
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21. 2 Contextual Design
Design is a specification of an object, manifested by
an agent, intended to accomplish goals, in a
particular environment, using a set of primitive
components, satisfying a set of requirements,
subject to constraints
Ralph, P. and Wand, Y. (2009). A proposal for a formal definition of the design concept. In Lyytinen, K., Loucopoulos, P., Mylopoulos, J., and Robinson, W., editors, Design Requirements
Workshop (LNBIP 14), pp. 103-136. Springer-Verlag, p. 109.
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22. Engineering Applied
Design
Arts
Web Instructional
Design
Design
Game
Design
Process
Graphic UI Design Design
Design
Interaction
Design
Product
Interior
Design
Archi- Design
tecture
Industrial Experience
Design Design Fashion
Service Universal Design
Design Design

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Ralph, P. and Wand, Y. (2009). A proposal for a formal definition of the design concept. In Lyytinen, K., Loucopoulos, P., Mylopoulos, J., and Robinson, W., editors, Design Requirements
Workshop (LNBIP 14), pp. 103-136. Springer-Verlag, p. 109.
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24. 2 Context(ual) Design?
Interpretation
• Designing for Context
! Designer investigates context Design Context
from outside Context of use
User Research
• Designing in Context
! Designer residing in Context
! Ethnographic approach
Context
of use
• Designing Context Design
Context
! Context is the design artifact
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25. 2 Contextual Design
Contextual inquiry
• The Concextual Design
Process Interpretation session
Data consolidation
Visioning & Storyboarding
Product and System
Requirements
here starts the user interface design
Paper Mockup Interviews
Interaction, Visual,
Industrial Design
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26. 2 User research methodologies
• Getting to know the user
• Who interacts
ts
• In his particular, relevant environment
g is
lo
ho
The goal of user research is to generates yc s
an
p ist
by log
understanding of the people who use our
products!
ne cio
do so
a lly or
U su
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27. 2 When to Use Which
User Experience Research Methods
Christian Rohrer - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-research-methods.html
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28. 2 User research methodologies
• Common user research methodologies
! Interviews, Focus Groups, Workshops
! Card Sorting
! Contextual inquiry
! Shadowing (similar to contextual inquiry but evaluator
only observes)
! Visual Anthropology (Foto Diary)
! Cultural Probing
! Questionnaires, Surveys, Panels (Similar to an online
survey that is given to a specific set of people, who have
been recruited for the purposes of research)
! Analytics (Measuring key metrics about what users are
doing)
! Diary Methods
! Experience Sampling Method
! ...
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29. 2 User research methodologies
• Ethnographies going into the field
! Participants are observed in their natural
environment (most typically in their homes,
offices, or where ever they use the product)
! Provides a deep understanding of their
lifestyles, cultures, process, and work‐
arounds as a basis for better understanding
their needs and problems
! Best if done early in the development
process to help
! inform features and functionality
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30. 2 User research methodologies
• Ethnography going into the field
! Moving into the context
! Get to know the end-users
! Getting first-hand information
!Ethnography is the practice of immersing oneself
in the world or culture that one is studying. This
means you go into the field to observe their
rituals and behaviour in their “natural setting”.
residing in the office
• Vs. “armchair anthropologists”
! Doing literature research only
• Too general
! Interrogating mostly unspecific user-groups
• Not necessarily representative
• e.g. colleagues
http://www.clipartoday.com/_thumbs/018/people/business/mandesk8-07_tnb.png
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31. 2 Contextual Inquiry
•A contextual inquiry interview is usually structured as an
approximately two-hour, one-on-one interaction in which
the researcher watches the user do their normal activities
and discusses what they see with the user.
• Contextual inquiry defines four principles to guide the
interaction:
■ Context—Interviews are conducted in the userʼs actual workplace. The researcher watches
users do their own work tasks and discusses any artifacts they generate or use with them. In
addition, the researcher gathers detailed re-tellings of specific past events when they are
relevant to the project focus.
■ Partnership—User and researcher collaborate to understand the userʼs work. The interview
alternates between observing the user as they work and discussing what the user did and
why.
■ Interpretation—The researcher shares their interpretations and insights with the user during
the interview. The user may expand or correct the researcherʼs understanding.
■ Focus—The researcher steers the interaction towards topics which are relevant to the
teamʼs scope.
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32. 2 When to use which
User Experience Research Methods
Christian Rohrer - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/user-research-methods.html
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33. 2 Usability vs. User Experience
• Usability
! The ease of use of a particular tool or designed object to achieve a
particular goal
• User Experience
! The experience a person has when interacting with an interactive
system (i.e. a product or a service)
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34. 2 Usability vs. User Experience
http://userexperienceproject.blogspot.com/2007/04/user-experience-wheel.html
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35. 2 User Experience
• Different facets of UX
! Values are what we want to achieve
! Usability is a prerequisite
! Utility / usefulness reflects the
matching with the user’s goals
! Findability of your product
! Accessibility
! Desirability reflects the user’s
emotions, feelings when interacting
with the interactive system
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36. 2 User Experience is…
a multi-disciplinary process
of design
- Information Architecture
- Interaction Design
- Ethnography
- Branding
- Library Science
- Usability
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37. 2 In practice ...
PreDesign • When to analyse context?
Phase • What does the context information contain?
• (Why) is the context information relevant to my
design?
• Who will be participating in the action?
Design • How do I use the context information in my
design
! Influences the functionality
! Influences the interaction design
! Influences a user’s context relevant to the design object
• Social Context
• Behavioral Context
• User attitudes, experiences
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38. 2 Designing the product
• De-contextualized design
! Only refers to the functionality
! Is based on functional requirements
! Goal: Design and develop a functional product that works
• Contextualized design
! Refers to the complete usage scenario
! Requires in-depth knowledge of the context-of-use
! Requirements elaborated on contextual
• Affordances
• Specific user properties (needs, behavior, attitudes, etc.)
! Goal: Design and develop a product that meets the needs of the
users and is designed for a positive user experience
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39. 2 Functionality
• Meeting the user’s needs
• Defines the “utility” of a product
• Needs to meet the user’s needs
! Question: Is it exactly this what I need?
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40. 2 Attachment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbttOR-SrRQ
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41. 2 Emotions
• Describes how the user
! Addresses a product
! Is attached to a product
! Is satisfied with a product
• Basic Emotion Scale Noldus FaceReader
! Anger: frustration, irritation, aggression,
jealousy, resentful.
! Sadness: despair, misery, defeated
gloominess, mournful.
! Disgust: shame, guilt, repulsion,
humiliated, blameworthy.
! Fear: anxiety, nervousness, tense,
worried, shy.
! Happiness: joy, elation, pride, loving,
cheerful. Geneva Emotion Wheel
Characters of Premo (Desmet 2003a)
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42. 2 How to regard this?
Plan – Planning is critical to the success of all projects, and
this is also true of projects using UCD. In the Plan phase, the
team determines all of the UCD activities and ensures that
the necessary resources are available. plan research
Research – Before you can design a product, it is imperative function- (user)
that you have a clear understanding of the users' goals and ality context
tasks, the market needs, and related work.
Design – In the design phase, you define your system from
the users' perspective. Initially, this phase takes the form of
use cases and an object action model, which describes the
tasks that the system will support. From these tasks you
Context
create UI designs, beginning with rough sketches and ending design
with detailed UI design specifications. in/for
Adapt – The adapt phase acknowledges that even the best context
conceived designs often need to be adapted when
development begins coding. This adaptation can occur as a
result of unforeseen limitations in the target technology, new
requirements, or missing functionality in the initial design.
Measure – When the product is released, it is possible to
measure its usability quantitatively. These tests measure a
product's effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/ucd_process.asp
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43. 2 Evaluation
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44. ● Questions?
Thank you!
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