Lecture 2: Discovering what people can't tell you: Contextual Inquiry and Analysis Methodology Brad Myers 05-863 / 45-888: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction for Technology Executives Fall, 2018, Mini 2 © 2018 - Brad Myers

Happy Halloween! Take 2 candies! © 2018 - Brad Myers

Resolve Devices for Assignments On the GoogleDoc © 2018 - Brad Myers

Some Usability Methods Contextual Inquiry Contextual Analysis (Design) Paper prototypes Think-aloud protocols Heuristic Evaluation Affinity diagrams (WAAD) Personas Wizard of Oz Task analysis Cognitive Walkthrough KLM and GOMS (CogTool) Video prototyping Body storming Expert interviews Information Architecture Diagrams A/B studies Questionnaires Surveys Storyboards Journey maps Prioritization Matrices Log analysis Focus groups Card sorting Diary studies Improvisation Use cases Scenarios Cognitive Dimensions “Speed Dating” Journey Maps … © 2018 - Brad Myers

Contextual Inquiry and Analysis/Design One method for organizing the development process We teach it to our MS and BS students Proven to be very successful Hartson-Pyla text: Chapters 3-6 (doing things in a different order than text) Also described in this classic book: H. Beyer and K. Holtzblatt. 1998. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. San Francisco, CA:Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 1558604111. © 2018 - Brad Myers

“Contextual Inquiry” Interpretive field research method Depends on conversations with users in the context of their work Used to discover real requirements, plans and designs. © 2018 - Brad Myers

Elements of User's Context: Pay Attention to all of these User's work space User's work User’s workarounds User's work intentions User's words (language used) Tools used How people work together Business goals Organizational and cultural structure © 2018 - Brad Myers

Why Context? Design complete work process Integration! Fits into “fabric” of entire operations Not just “point solutions” to specific problems Integration! Consistency, effectiveness, efficiency, coherent Design from data Not just opinions, negotiation Not just a list of features © 2018 - Brad Myers

What looking for? Key things you are looking for: What happens, specifically Breakdowns – things that go wrong Small and large Efficiencies – things that go right Be sure not to change these in a redesign Influences – why are things done the way they are Ask questions when can’t tell Context – how the environment affects actions © 2018 - Brad Myers

Example of CI New video of sample session with an eCommerce site Re-creation of actual activities my wife had with a current website http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bam/uicourse/CI-Example.mp4 © 2018 - Brad Myers

Defining the Tasks In a real Contextual Inquiry, user decides the tasks Investigate real-world tasks, needs & context But you still must decide the focus What tasks you want to observe That are relevant to your product plan But for Assignment 1, you will have to invent some tasks © 2018 - Brad Myers

Test Tasks Task design is difficult part of usability testing Representative of “real” tasks Sufficiently realistic and compelling so users are motivated to finish Can let users create their own tasks if relevant Appropriate difficulty and coverage Should last about 2 min. for expert, less than 30 min. for novice Short enough to be finished, but not trivial Tasks not humorous, frivolous, or offensive Easy task first, progressively harder But better if independent © 2018 - Brad Myers

Initial Questions for the Users Find out the context through initial questions When would you normally do this kind of task? Who would be involved in making the decisions? What would influence any decisions? How would you know what to do? What information would you use to help decide? Getting their feelings about the tasks and the context Get motivations and influences © 2018 - Brad Myers

Test Script Example: Useful to have a script Make sure say everything you want Make sure all users get same instructions Should read instructions out loud Ask if users have any questions Make sure instructions provide goals only in a general way, and doesn’t give away information Describe the result and not the steps Avoid product names and technical terms that appear on the web site Don’t give away the vocabulary Example: “The clock should have the right time”; not: “Use the hours and minutes buttons to set the time” © 2018 - Brad Myers

Key distinctions about CIs Interviews, Surveys, Focus Groups Summary data & abstractions What customers say Subjective Limited by reliability of human memory What customers think they want Contextual Inquiry Ongoing experience & concrete data What users do Objective Spontaneous, as it happens What users actually need © 2018 - Brad Myers

Who? Users Interviewers: “Cross-functional” team Between 6 – 20 Representative of different roles Note: may not be people who will be doing the purchasing of the system E.g., if for an enterprise; public kiosk Interviewers: “Cross-functional” team Designers UI specialists Product managers Marketing Technical people Generally, at least 2 interviewers © 2018 - Brad Myers

Establishing Partnership Share control Not a conventional interview Alternative way to view the relationship: Master/Apprentice Use open-ended questions that invite users to talk: "What are you doing?" "Is that what you expect?" Let the user lead the conversation: “Think-aloud protocol” Also, pay attention to communication that is non-verbal © 2018 - Brad Myers

Some Alternative Contextual Inquiry Interview Methods For tasks that are: Intermittent Uninterruptible Extremely long Multi-person tasks Alternatives to “regular” Contextual Inquiry: In-context cued recall Activity logs Post-observation inquiry Artifact walkthrough Retrospective interview © 2018 - Brad Myers

Interview Recording and Note-Taking Do record interview Video recordings Screen capture software with laptop microphone for user Also take detailed notes Normally have at least 2 people, so one can take notes For your homework, may need to take notes afterwards from recording © 2018 - Brad Myers