1 l545 systems analysis & design week 3: september 16, 2008
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L545 Systems Analysis & Design
Week 3: September 16, 2008
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Announcement
Problem Definitions will be posted on Oncourse (Forum) for potential group projects
Add your profile in Oncourse
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The Core Premise of Contextual Inquiry
Go where the user works, observe the user as he or she works, and talk to the user about the work
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4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry
Context Partnership Interpretation Focus
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4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Context
Go to the customer’s workplace and see the work as it unfolds Summary vs. ongoing experience (see
HWW, p. 96—dos & don’ts) Abstract vs. concrete data (ask for specific
instances; use the real artifacts) Observe the work practice
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4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Partnership
Collaborate with the user on understanding his work
Users are experts; we (analysts) provide tools to analyze the work situation
Get feedback on design ideas Goals: articulating work structure &
revising design ideas
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4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Interpretation
We need to verify our interpretations with users
Fact Hypothesis Design
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Example of Possible Interpretations
What’s your interpretation for the following observation?
A user of an accounting package kept a list of account names and account #s next to her screen
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4 Principles of Contextual Inquiry: Focus
What aspects of work matter and what don’t Project focus gives the team a shared
starting point How to expand focus
Surprises and contradictions Nods What you don’t know
Admit your ignorance You are there to learn (the master/apprenticeship
model)
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Pitfall for Design
“The success rate is only 20% when technical engineers design what they think other people want” says the Intel’s chairman, Andrew S. Grove (Takahashi, 1998)
Takahashi, D. (1998). Doing fieldwork in the high-tech jungle. Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 28.
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Success for Design
What can we learn from Toyota’s design strategies described in Gertner (2007)?
Cf., using ethnography in contextual design (Simonsen & Kensing, 1997).
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Design Ethnographer
A social scientist who works for a technology company and studies user environments to suggest product improvements. [source]
Design ethnographer at IBM & Intel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuN7
Mc0S1TU
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Contextual Interview Structure: 4 steps
Conventional interview (introduction) Introduce yourself, get to know each other as
people Get opinions about the tools, and an overview
of the job and the work (summary data)
Transition (set the rules)
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Contextual Interview Structure: 4 steps
Contextual interview proper The customer do her work task You (the apprentice) observe, ask Qs, suggest
interpretations of behaviors Be nosy Follow the user around Remember: context, partnership, interpretation, & focus
Wrap-up Summarize what you learned User’s last chance to correct and elaborate on your
understanding
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Interviews
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Example of an Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I&feature=related
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Designing the Interviewing Situation
Normal task … is easy What about others?
Intermittent task Uninterruptible task Extremely long task (e.g., years) Extremely focused task Internal mental task
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Who to Interview—how many?
1-2 people in each role you identified as important to the focus
Collect data from 5-15 people in all
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Who to Interview? (HWW, p. 68-69)
Diversity is an important aspect: look for cultural differences different physical situations (e.g., single-
location vs. distributed locations) differences of scale (a small business vs.
a large corporation)
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Group Activity
Role play for Builders, PMgers, Architects, & User Reps
Do not share the write-ups Meet together for the assigned role Then, form a design team Debrief
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Group Activity
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Group ActivityPM Architect Builder User
Reps
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