Word:  Contextual Inquiry

Definition: A research approach in which the researcher physically goes on-site to meet with participants. Once on-site, the researcher can interview and/or observe users in their normal working environments.

Thoughts: Contextual inquiry, like everything in life, has its benefits and pitfalls. Let's start with the good! Observing a user in their "natural habitat" will provide much richer and detailed information that may be extremely hard or even impossible to learn over the phone or in a constructed setting. Think about designing hospital enterprise software, for example. If you can watch how staff work together and you can observe their workflow first hand, this will be far more beneficial than having someone dictate process to you over the phone.

In a perfect world, most of us would prefer this method above all else. However, such research techniques are first and foremost time-consuming and expensive. As we all know, research tends to be one of the first areas to get cut from budget, so many times this is just not an option. Additionally, there are security, intellectual property, and intrusiveness concerns on top of everything else.

We could all use an opportunity to get off our tails and when such an approach makes sense, jump at the chance. Keep contextual inquiry in your research arsenal!

Questions: Have you ever been in a situation when a contextual inquiry did not go as planned? How about a time you learned something during a contextual inquiry that might never have come up otherwise?