Tutorial 8

Contextual Inquiry: Grounding Your Design in Users' Work

Minette A. Beabes, Anne Smith Duncan, Digital Equipment Corporation

Sunday, May 7

Objective

Participants will learn the definition of Contextual Inquiry (CI) and its three major principles. They will also learn to conduct an interview using the principles of CI, structure the data from a CI interview for use in design, choose from a series of CI methods depending on the design situation, compare CI to other methods of data gathering, and relate CI to a set of subsequent design steps.

Content

This tutorial provides a basis for conducting field research with customers and for incorporating findings into product development. Integrating CI techniques into the development process is explicitly addressed. Exercises providing practical guidance and experience cover the limitations in traditional methods for requirements gathering andillustrate the distinctions of CI. Alternatives to traditional interviews are discussed in terms of product development. These alternatives include: post-observation inquiry, artifact walkthrough, future scenario, and prototype test- drive. The links between CI and quality processes, engineering methods, and usability techniques are also illustrated. Guidelines and templates for customer-related research are included.

Audience

This introductory-level tutorial is intended for people seeking an introduction to the application of field research techniques to system design. Intended participants: software developers, information specialists, engineering managers, those who manage an overall product development effort, and those who manage usability groups.

Presentation

Lecture, video, exercises

Instructors

Minette A. Beabes is a usability engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation. She is a master trainer for the CI program at Digital, and has done advanced development work with the CI methodology. Anne Smith Duncan is a usability engineer and software engineering manager at Digital Equipment Corporation. Her research includes incorporating user-based requirements in the software development process.

Keith Instone / instone@acm.org / 95-01-05