Contextual Design
Time
Resources
Budget
Find a way to fit within existing structures, expectations, and development processes of the organization
Real speed of the process depends on:
Number of customer visits
Number of people working simultaneously on the project
Dedication of the people on the project
Size of the need
Number of stakeholders that have to be satisfied
How do I get started?
Packing -up materials wastes time
Generates excitement & sparks curiosity  
Get a team room!
Contextual Interviews
Your data is only as good as the people you interview.
Your goal is to get a good cross section of your target 
    user population with a small number of participants.
Get enough coverage of each type of participant.
Rigby Literacy by Design
Online Lesson Planner
Teachers


Usability Testing vs. Field Study
Work through vendors, sales, sales support, management, user advocate, advertise for volunteers
Get as close to the real work as possible!
Don't worry about looking stupid or embarrasing your company. You will look interested and gain respect.
Contextual Interview Interpretation Session
Involve the team in reviewing, analyzing, and capturing key issues revealed by the cutomer data.
Roles
What to record in the affinity notes
Interpretations of events, use of artifacts, problems, and opportunities
Important characteristics of the work
Breakdowns of the work
Cultural influences
Design ideas (flag with DI:)
Questions for future interviews (flag with Q:)
Insightful customer quotes
As a general rule of thumb, 50 to 100 affinity notes should be captured for each two-hour interview.
Capture Insights
Step back from the detail of the data and think about patterns in the work, key issues that must be addressed, and overall implications for the project.
Affinity Diagram
Brings issues and insights across all cutomers together into a wall-sized, hierarchical diagram.
Blue
Pink
Green
Notes written in first person, as though the user was directly talking to you.
Collect together a group of blue labels with a common theme. Also in the voice of the user.
Summarize the pink labels.  They denote a big piece of the user story.
Personas
Personas were popularized by Alan Cooper. They help bring users alive and focus the stakeholders on relevant issues. 
Goals - What is the user trying to accomplish?
Roles - Which "hats" does the user wear?
Key Tasks - What are the most important tasks?
Vision a New Way to Work
Part brainstorming and party storytelling
Sometimes these items seem
 to be in short supply:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Rapid
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
http://www.freefoto.com
http://www.free-stockphotos.com
Example:
Various school districts
Teaching experience
Classroom and Support
Contextual Design
Rapid
Not just...
Techniques for 
User-Centered Design
r.brandenburg@sixredmarbles.com
Robin Brandenburg
http://blog.sixredmarbles.com
The Contextual Design methodology, developed by Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer, is a customer-centered design process which uses extensive field data as the foundation for understanding users’ needs, tasks, intents, and processes in order to design products that meet both users’ and business’ needs. 
http://incontextdesign.com/
http://www.freefever.com/freeclipart/
Quick Commercial Break...
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
You are also an  expert -- in probing and understanding their worlds. 
The user is the expert.
http://www.clker.com/
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
Within 48 hours of field visit
Don't talk about details of the visit before the session
Interpretation Session
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
Identify roles
Capture user and organization profiles
Capture affinity notes and work models
Capture insights
(don't summarize or edit out)
Shares what happened in the interview via notes
Writes concise, informative affinity notes that are displayed for all to see
Writes steps of work models
Listens and probes
Keeps session on track
Interviewer
Notetaker
Work Modeler
General Team Member(s)
Moderator
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
http://www.clker.com/
U01-30 
She is frustrated by school filter i.e. can't get to helpful websites.
U02-15
Uses log book (hand written).
Teaches 30 kids from 12 different classes so this book is used to track of student progress.
U04-20
Types her lesson plans so they can be emailed to other people (student teacher, others teachers, etc.)
U04-20 DI: Allow lessons plans to be shared with others as user chooses.
Insights describe patterns, situations, and needs, not solutions. They are reactions and thoughts to what they just heard.
Creates lesson plans together with other teachers on grade level to integrate curriculum.
Resources that accompany lesson plans need to be easily accessible.
Must plan lessons for all subject areas so having a planner that is flexible (not just for one subject) would be helpful.
Built from the bottom up, grouping notes that reveal key themes in your data.
http://www.free-clipart-pictures.net/
Discuss ideas for new groupings
Separate out any notes that don't fit
Characterizes the work of the users and pushes home an issue to the team
Stimulates good design thinking
http://www.cartoonclipart.com
Field Study
One-on-one
Brief introduction (share your focus)
Observe and discuss (make talk concrete, you need the why)
Be nosy (phone calls, emails, etc. are okay)
Take hand-written notes (don't use your computer)
Collect artifacts
Wrap-up
There should be approx. 6 blue labels per pink label.
Pink labels reveal key issues in the data.
There should be enough information to understand the issue.
Are more categorical and abstract.
Goal is to chunk the wall.
Overview of key issues.
http://www.cooper.com/
One-page textual description of a typical user. Focus on:
Walk the Data
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/24600/24681/frog_storyte_24681.htm
Sample Artifacts
Sample Field Notes
Sample Personas
Another time we will discuss paper prototyping, informal user testing, and helpful tools!
http://www.balsamiq.com/
Balsamiq
Visio
http://www.balsamiq.com/
http://plasq.com/comiclife-win
http://www.twiddla.com/Home.aspx