Assignment 2: Contextual Inquiry
Important dates:
- Assigned: Thursday, February 20th
- Due: Friday, March 7th
Overview
In this assignment, you’ll use the method of contextual inquiry to develop an initial understanding of a user and their tasks in a specific domain. You will lean on the skills you’ll develop and practice for this assignment during the project.
Scenario
You are a product manager for a startup focused on productivity tools for students. Observe and interview a student as they schedule tasks for themselves, study for an exam, plan their days, schedule meetings with teammates, make joint decisions with collaborators, work at their jobs, and/or perform another task related to work and/or productivity.
Conduct a contextual inquiry in which you interact with one participant in one or more settings of your choice. You should select settings that are representative of the context of the prompt, accessible to you, and, ideally, interesting to you. If your setting has multiple students interacting/working together as part of the tasks you’re studying, it’s fine (and will likely be informative) to interview multiple people.
The scope of the scenario above is broad, and you’ll need to narrow it down by coming up with a specific research question. Here are some examples of research questions you might ask and ways you might consider approaching them:
| Resarch question | Scenario |
|---|---|
| How do graduate students approach writing assignments? | Sit with your friend as they work on an assignment for another class. Gain an understanding of how they approach the task, maintain focus, and handle distractions if they arise. |
| How do teammates coordinate around groupwork? | Attend a lab or project meeting (virtually or in-person). Gain an understanding of how teammates coordinate around shared projects, schedule meetings, and assign subtasks. |
| How do undergraduate students manage their time? | Shadow someone as they plan their tasks for the week, using either a physical planner or a digital tool. Gain an understanding of how they prioritize, how they categorize their tasks, and how they manage their time. |
| How do students balance work and school responsibilities? | Hang out with someone during their shift at work (if it’s allowed & safe, of course!). Gain an understanding of their tasks in their workplace, the kinds of interactions they have, and how they juggle their work vs. school responsibilities. |
This is not an exhaustive list – you’re welcome to use choose any setting you can think of that is related to work and/or productivity. This assignment is intended to help you practice interviewing skills and get some experience talking with users in context; therefore, it’s fine to first think about what kinds of settings or tasks you may have access to and then “work backwards” to choose a research question that fits one of those settings. The only exception: Do not observe someone doing work for this class.
A reminder: Regardless of what setting(s) you choose, make sure that your research is ethical and minimally disruptive. Obtain informed consent from all involved parties, and, if necessary, seek permission from an authority who oversees the setting (e.g., the PI if observing a lab meeting, a manager if observing a work shift).
Before you start, you’ll need to develop a protocol for your contextual inquiry. Contextual inquiry involves both observing and asking. As you observe the user in their “natural habitat”, you interrupt at appropriate times to ask them questions about what they are doing, what they are thinking, and how they are problem-solving. You should come in with a set of questions that you intend to ask, but bear in mind that you may or may not end up asking them in order.
Take detailed notes on what the people you interact with say and do. These can be handwritten or typed. You’ll use them to write a summary of your findings.
You may choose to record the interviews and take notes after the fact if that is easier for you. If you do this, by Massachusetts Law, you MUST obtain the consent of the person you are interviewing AND anyone else who might inadvertently be recorded. This is true whether you are meeting in-person or virtually. It is not enough to ask only the permission of the authority overseeing the meeting to record (to revisit the lab example: you must get consent from every lab member, not just the PI, to record). Therefore, it is wise to only record if you are in a private location where it is easy to obtain the consent of all recorded parties.
Plan to spend 30-60 minutes on the interview.
What you’ll turn in
Your final submission should take the form of a single 1-2 page report (just a single document) of your contextual inquiry exercise. The report should address the following:
- What was your research question?
- Who did you interview?
- How did you obtain informed consent?
- Where and when did you observe/interview them? How long did the session last?
- What questions did you ask? (You don’t have include your whole protocol. A summary is fine.)
- What did you learn from your interviews? (You are not expected to use any particular analysis method here, since we haven’t covered that yet. Just describe your initial impressions.)
- Did your understanding of the user’s needs and/or goals change after the contextual inquiry? If so, how?
- Short reflection: How did it go? Did anything about the process surprise you? What might you do differently next time?
The report should be written in prose (not bullets) and read like a very short research paper. You do not have to answer each question in order, but you will be graded on whether and how effectively each one is addressed. You may want to include images, excerpts from your interview protocol and/or quotes from participants to help tell the story of your research.
Rubric and grading
You will receive a grade out of 100%. You will be graded on whether the basic requirements of the assignment is met, how well your report addresses the questions above, and the overall clarity and organization of your work.
The evaluation criteria are:
- Does your report document follow basic formatting instructions?
- Does your report articulate a clear problem space that goes beyond the general topic of “productivity”? Does it explain your research question?
- Does your report describe your research protocol?
- Does your report describe the user group/characterization you focused on and why you picked that group or type of user?
- Does your report describe how you introduced the interview and obtained informed consent?
- Does your report describe the context of the interview in enough detail that a naive reader can imagine it?
- Does your report describe your findings?
- Is the report well-organized and easy to follow?
Remember:
This assignment is intended to get you to practice the skill of interviewing people for research, with a focus on doing so in-context. You should prioritize the process of preparing for the interview, going into the context, and conducting the interview over generating groundbreaking or novel insights. What you find may not be groundbreaking or particularly surprising, but you would not have found it if you hadn’t observed and asked. Your report won’t be judged on the novelty or “wow factor” of your response to the “What did you learn?” question above – what’s important is that you practice, reflect on, and clearly articulate your process.