1. 1 L545 Systems Analysis & Design Week 3: September 16, 2008

2. SLIS S556 2 Announcement Problem Definitions will be posted on Oncourse (Forum) for potential group projects Add your profile in Oncourse

3. SLIS S556 3 The Core Premise of Contextual Inquiry Go where the user works, observe the user as he or she works, and talk to the user about the work

4. SLIS S556 4 4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry Context Partnership Interpretation Focus

5. SLIS S556 5 4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Context Go to the customer’s workplace and see the work as it unfolds  Summary vs. ongoing experience (see HWW, p. 96—dos & don’ts)  Abstract vs. concrete data (ask for specific instances; use the real artifacts)  Observe the work practice

6. SLIS S556 6 4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Partnership Collaborate with the user on understanding his work Users are experts; we (analysts) provide tools to analyze the work situation Get feedback on design ideas Goals: articulating work structure & revising design ideas

7. SLIS S556 7 4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Interpretation We need to verify our interpretations with users FactHypothesisDesign

8. SLIS S556 8 Example of Possible Interpretations What’s your interpretation for the following observation?  A user of an accounting package kept a list of account names and account #s next to her screen

9. SLIS S556 9 4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Focus What aspects of work matter and what don’t Project focus gives the team a shared starting point How to expand focus  Surprises and contradictions  Nods  What you don’t know Admit your ignorance You are there to learn (the master/apprenticeship model)

10. SLIS S556 10 Pitfall for Design “The success rate is only 20% when technical engineers design what they think other people want” says the Intel’s chairman, Andrew S. Grove (Takahashi, 1998) Takahashi, D. (1998). Doing fieldwork in the high-tech jungle. Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 28.

11. SLIS S556 11 Success for Design What can we learn from Toyota’s design strategies described in Gertner (2007)? Cf., using ethnography in contextual design (Simonsen & Kensing, 1997).

12. SLIS S556 12 Design Ethnographer A social scientist who works for a technology company and studies user environments to suggest product improvements. [source]source Design ethnographer at  IBM & Intel IBMIntel  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuN7 Mc0S1TU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuN7 Mc0S1TU

13. SLIS S556 13 Contextual Interview Structure: 4 steps Conventional interview (introduction)  Introduce yourself, get to know each other as people  Get opinions about the tools, and an overview of the job and the work (summary data) Transition (set the rules)

14. SLIS S556 14 Contextual Interview Structure: 4 steps Contextual interview proper  The customer do her work task  You (the apprentice) observe, ask Qs, suggest interpretations of behaviors  Be nosy  Follow the user around  Remember: context, partnership, interpretation, & focus Wrap-up  Summarize what you learned  User’s last chance to correct and elaborate on your understanding

15. 15 Interviews

16. SLIS S556 16 Example of an Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4 OvQIGDg4I&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4 OvQIGDg4I&feature=related

17. SLIS S556 17 Designing the Interviewing Situation Normal task … is easy What about others?  Intermittent task  Uninterruptible task  Extremely long task (e.g., years)  Extremely focused task  Internal mental task

18. SLIS S556 18 Who to Interview—how many? 1-2 people in each role you identified as important to the focus Collect data from 5-15 people in all

19. SLIS S556 19 Who to Interview? (HWW, p. 68-69) Diversity is an important aspect: look for  cultural differences  different physical situations (e.g., single- location vs. distributed locations)  differences of scale (a small business vs. a large corporation)

20. SLIS S556 20 Group Activity Role play for Builders, PMgers, Architects, & User Reps Do not share the write-ups Meet together for the assigned role Then, form a design team Debrief

21. SLIS S556 21 Group Activity

22. SLIS S556 22 Group Activity PMArchitectBuilderUser Reps A B C D E