Contextual Inquiry

Create a research plan

Always begin all research or testing with a research plan. Know why you’re collecting data and information. Refer to Research Plan activity for the full instructions and template.

Create a discussion guide

Use the discussion guide template. The template has some example questions that you can use. Write down additional and specific discussion topics and questions that you want to explore.

The discussion guide is a starting place for conversation. It will give you an idea of what to talk about before talking to people. It provides a general structure as well as room for new topics and themes to emerge and explore. It is important in the process to stay flexible as some questions may not generate as much discussion, and some answers may not guide towards inspiration. Take the opportunity during the conversation to update, improve, or be more specific in your questioning as you learn from the participants.

This is the general flow of the inquiry:

• Introductions (5 minutes)
• Tour (10 minutes)
• Initial Interview (5-10 minutes)
• Observations (60 minutes)
• Follow-up Interview (30 minutes)
• Conclusion (5 minutes)

Recruit participants and prepare materials

Recruit participants for the inquiry. A few approaches for recruiting are working with an agency, posting online, or putting up flyers on campuses. Explain the purpose of your research to them and offer an incentive. Seek permission to observe users in context and to take photos of the environment and artifacts. You will be following them while they complete tasks and reflect on their own emotions and process.

Prepare any NDAs, incentives, and recording equipment.

Pilot the discussion guide

Pilot the inquiry session and discussion guide by practicing with your team. Make sure everyone understands their roles, the objectives, schedule, and discussion topics.

Arrive at location

Notice the atmosphere, environment, artifacts, workflow, and people involved.

Start with introductions

Use the discussion guide for reference. Greet the participant and thank them for making time. Introduce each person. Set intention of the conversation and explain why the team is here today. Tell them what they can expect and what you expect from them.

Ensure a safe space for the conversation. Mention you’re here to learn about them and that there are no wrong answers. Explain that the photos and note taking are for learning and reference purposes. Mention confidentiality and ask them for verbal consent. It is possible for participants to decline and not be comfortable with any recording or photo taking.

Take a tour

Ask for a tour of the location to get an overview. If permitted, take photos of anything that is interesting and would aid in telling the story of this user. These can be shared with the team.

Ease into the conversation

Learn about their background related to the topic. Keep these questions open-ended and broad.

• How long have you been doing this particular activity?
• When do you typically do this activity?
• Is anyone else involved?

Observe and learn

This is where you will spend the most time. Focus on observing and learning. Ask the participant to walk you through their workflow as if you are not there. Remind the participant that you are not there to judge them. You are there to learn about how they do a particular activity.

Silently shadow them as they show you what they typically do, what tools they use, and who they interact with. Observe what they are doing as well as what is happening around them.

Pay attention to these things:

• Facial expressions
• Uttered sounds that communicate emotion
• Posture
• Gesture and body language
• Workarounds that may highlight insufficiencies
• Different ways that the participant interacts with an item that it was not intended for.

Take notes of specific behaviors and follow-up after the observations.

Follow-up interview

Ask the participant questions you had based on the observations. Try to understand the core reason behind those actions.

• I noticed you did _______, can you tell me more about that?
• Why did you decide to do it this way?
• Why is that?
• You were using _______, can you show it to me? Why did you do that?
• How did you feeling when you did ________?
• What was challenging for you?

Use the questions from the discussion guide as a guideline to help the participant share more details about a behavior.

Thank and reward them

Thank them for their time and offer the reward.

Debrief after the session

Spend 30 minutes after each session to briefly discuss findings while your memory is fresh. Try to keep it on the same day. Share your observations. What was a highlight? What was surprising or unexpected? What was new for you? What was useful? What stood out? Summarize themes and conclusion.

Continue with more contextual inquiries

Repeat steps 1 through 8 for each inquiry.

Turn data into insights

After all the contextual inquiries are done, it is time to make sense of the information. This is the critical part for discovering key patterns of behavior and interpreting user needs and problems.

First, review observations from your notes and the recordings. Create an affinity diagram by transferring key observations and highlights to sticky notes. Group the sticky notes (of observations) that indicate patterns of behavior and motivations. Circle the group of sticky notes to form a cluster and label them. Write the labels from the perspective of the user. The labels should capture the key point and summarize the set of sticky notes. After grouping the sticky notes, review the labels. If there are larger themes shared amongst multiple clusters, group them together and label the theme.

Next, create problem statements that describe the users’ intention. Look at the clusters of behavior to understand what the user is trying to accomplish. How is it challenging for them? Interpret the users’ needs and problems. Writing problem statements in this format will help summarize the target user, the need, and the supporting evidence. Focus on the users’ intention and not a feature or solution.

You will end with many problem statements that reflect the users’ needs with supporting evidence. Supplement the supporting evidence with videos, images, and quotes to tell a compelling story about what matters to your users. You can also combine learnings and opportunities from other research activities.

Create Personas and Empathy Maps to capture who these people are.
Create Current Journey Maps to capture the sequence and workflow.

Share your findings with others

Share the insights with the team to build a shared understanding of the users. The team will be able to make informed decisions as they create a desirable product or service.