Contextual Inquiry: How to plan, execute and analyze a site visit
For people in design teams who need to base their designs on reality, not on assumptions, "Contextual inquiry: how to plan, execute and analyze a site visit" is a 1-day seminar that teaches delegates how to get the most from a field visit to a customer location. Unlike academic courses, delegates on this seminar carry out their own study and so learn the practicalities of contextual inquiry on the job.
Field studies are invaluable when you need to understand first-hand how users work or behave, the kinds of tasks users carry out and the variety of environments in which users operate. Real-world observation provides insights that user self reports or surveys can't provide - often because users can't explain what they are doing or because their behavior is so practised that users can't articulate how they work.
But carrying out a field study has a number of difficulties. How do you select the right users? When should you observe and when should you ask questions? How do you collect observational data and how do you analyze it to improve your design?
This seminar is led by Dr. Philip Hodgson who has over 20 years experience in the field of user-centered design.
Duration
This is a one-day seminar.
This seminar is for you ...
... if you are part of a design team that wants to understand the goals that your customers need to achieve, and to identify new product opportunities or new features for existing systems. This is a hands-on course and is most effective for delegates - including designers, researchers and marketers - who have responsibility for innovation, and for ensuring new concepts meet customers' needs.
You will learn how to:
- Collect rich, detailed data that will help you gain a holistic view of users and their tasks.
- Learn how to project a professional image to clients and customers.
- Target the right kind of users for potential site visits.
- Develop field study forms and checklists to quickly and accurately record observations.
- Practice techniques like KJ Analysis to quickly analyze observational data.
Detailed lesson plan for this Contextual inquiry training seminar (pdf format, 180 kb).