Contextual Design

Contextual Design is a user-centered design process developed by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt. It incorporates ethnographic methods for gathering data relevant to the product via field studies, rationalizing workflows, and designing human–computer interfaces. The process culminates in a team’s shared, concrete understanding of the customers’ work and their system’s response, giving the design team the chance to create a coherent system that works for its target market or organization.

It’s a powerful, flexible tool that can be used for everything from finding out what people need from a new computer software program to figuring out the best way to organize your library’s collections. However, because it’s such a big, complex process, the temptation to skip over parts of it is always there, especially when you’re pressed for time or budget.

Creating a sequence model is one of the most important elements in Contextual Design because it shows you how a person performs an activity. In the simplest form, you place an individual step of an activity on a white sheet of paper with its context and timing in writing or drawing. Then you write the purpose and/or strategy of that step in pink and any breakdowns or workarounds in red. You can also add arrows to show which other steps the activity is connected to. Fig. 8.2 shows a partial sequence model showing green activity chunks with blue consolidated steps and their associated intents and breakdowns.

What is the purpose of creating a sequence model in Contextual Design?

In the interpretation session that follows an interview, it is crucial to keep track of all the models created. A sequence model is easy to scan, so it’s a useful way of summarizing what was said during the interview. It’s also easy to send around to team members who couldn’t attend the session or to anyone else who needs to see what you learned.

Another important function of the sequence model is to reveal tacit aspects of a user’s work practice. The way a person does a task can be much more complex than the tasks themselves and it can be difficult to articulate those details in an interview. A sequence model helps reveal these hidden complexities so you can create a better, more usable product.

By using Rapid Contextual Design techniques to analyze workflow, librarians managing e-resources in the departments of Acquisitions and Cataloging at the University of California were able to identify false assumptions and pinpoint areas where they could improve their processes without incurring undue costs in staff time. This project demonstrates how small projects can benefit from the use of Contextual Design, even with limited resources and tight deadlines. By carefully scoping the project to be short and targeted, the team was able to make an impact on a large number of users with minimal effort. By combining Contextual Design with User Environment Design and storyboards, the librarians were able to develop an efficient, streamlined system that has been proven to be successful in a real-world implementation. (Reprinted with permission from The Institute of Management Technology, Boston, August 1993). Jharina Pascual and Sarah Wallbank are e-resources acquisitions and cataloging librarians at the University of California, Irvine.