Helpful tips to improve your Contextual Inquiry techniques

By Shelley Wood, InContext Enterprises Consulting Services

Keeping a Contextual Inquiry from becoming a traditional interview can sometimes be tricky. Remember, the purpose of Contextual Inquiry is to get appropriately detailed data which can be used to understand design implications for your product or solution.

Sometimes it can be difficult—especially when you are just beginning to do Contextual Inquiry interviews—to keep the customer interview on track. The interview starts out great: you're in the field, you're with the real user, you're at the user's desk, home, or wherever the real work takes place.

Realizing your interview is no longer a Contextual Inquiry

At some point during the interview you realize things have gone awry. You are asking questions and the user is answering you, but you aren't seeing him or her do their real work practice. The user is either giving you one-word answers, or long explanations about what he or she "typically" does. It feels like your questions aren't getting very good data, it's all high level and not detailed. You may not even recognize this has happened until you come back and report to your team what took place in the interview. Then you realize that most of the time you can't really answer their questions like: "What exactly does the user do when…", "Did you talk about…", or "What specific steps does the user take to …?"

How did your interview stop becoming a Contextual Inquiry? You probably didn't recognize the triggers that signal you've slipped out of Contextual Inquiry behavior and reverted to traditional interviewing or questionnaire mode.

Triggers and actions for redirecting the interview

First, it happens to everyone now and then, even those of us who have much experience. Below you’ll find a table listing the triggers you can watch for that signal the interview needs to be redirected back to Contextual Inquiry. Each trigger has a specific action you can take to get the interview back to where it belongs. You might even print the list and slip it into your notebook and take it with you into the field. Whenever you feel the need, take a peek. You’ll find the quality of your interviews will improve immediately.

If at first you don't succeed—try, try again

Are these triggers and actions a cure-all, guaranteeing that users will immediately shift from giving you summary data and abstractions and provide low-level details? No. For one thing, none of this will help if the person you are interviewing is not the person who truly does the work you need to study. Keep in mind that users are just like everyone else. We've been conditioned—by other interview situations and the rest of our daily lives—to think that no one really wants to hear and see exactly what we do, what we think, and why.

As you continue to redirect the interview, you'll be in essence training the user that you do want the details. Most of them will soon understand what you are after and start giving you details without being prompted. A few never will, and that's no reflection on them or you. Just accept that part of your job is helping them give you the information you need, even if you have to redirect them over and over again. With these triggers and actions, you can improve the data you get while in the field.