A contextual inquiry is a semi-structured interview method to obtain information about the context of use, where users are first asked a set of standard questions and then observed and questioned while they work in their own environments. Our group went through the steps including:
An excerpt from our task data from one observation: Location: Francis Scott Key
In total, I saw 37 people riding bikes from sitting near the intersection from 2:15 to 3:15 pm on 9/18/18. However, probably 95% of people were walking around McKeldin rather than biking. Most of the walkways were concrete or brick, which did get wet with the on and off rain we received that day. Depending on the bike, you could be more prone to slipping on that surface when the weather is unfavorable.
Some quotes from our interviews include:
- Do your pre-visit preparation and your field visits.
- Decide how many and which people will carry out which parts of this work and how many visits you will make. We expect to see a minimum of:
- 5 hours of observation with at least ten pages of observation notes made at those visits
- Two site visits (can be to the same site or different sites)
- At least five interviews (at least three interviews with people who might end up being users, and at least two with other stakeholders)
- Collect task data (see reading/lectures for definition).
- Collect work artifacts (see reading/lectures for definition).
- Take photos (if possible/appropriate).
- Make sketches of the physical work space.
An excerpt from our task data from one observation: Location: Francis Scott Key
In total, I saw 37 people riding bikes from sitting near the intersection from 2:15 to 3:15 pm on 9/18/18. However, probably 95% of people were walking around McKeldin rather than biking. Most of the walkways were concrete or brick, which did get wet with the on and off rain we received that day. Depending on the bike, you could be more prone to slipping on that surface when the weather is unfavorable.
Some quotes from our interviews include:
- 'Biking during peak hours is unsafe'
- 'I don't bike because I feel like there are easier modes of transportation. Why bike when you have a free bus?'
- 'Bikers are worse than drivers. They never stop or obey traffic laws'.