Universal Methods of Design

RESEARCH METHOD

20 Contextual Inquiry

Contextual inquiry is an immersive, contextual method of observing and interviewing that reveals underlying (and invisible) work structure.¹

Before design teams can improve the ways in which people work, researchers must observe work where it happens. Spending time where work takes place is a precondition to understanding users’ tacit knowledge, and contextual inquiry provides a framework that places the researcher on-site as a participant in the inquiry, and begins the process of exposing underlying work structure.

There are four principles that define the contextual inquiry method:²

Context The most basic ...