Collecting user needs in everyday practice, part 1

Collecting user needs is one of the most important first steps in a user centred design approach to development. The most widely used method is contextual inquiry. Contextual inquiry is a method where users are observed in real life situations to discover how they work and what they need. This method is often considered to expensive and time consuming to apply in many projects.

“Model driven Inquiry” as described by Larry Constantine in User Experience magazine.  Limits the amount of field research and helps to make use of the existing knowledge and verify it to real life situations and real users.

Model driven inquiry consists of the following steps:

1. Build exploratory models
2. Compile emerging questions
3. Select an efficient way to solve questions
4. Conduct a limited and highly focused inquiry
5. Refine and complete the initial models
6. Review and validate the models

Build exploratory models

The goal is to find out what you know already and what you still need to find out. Use all information you have to build a first model of the user needs/requirements. This can be all kinds of lists and inventories like:

• All expected activities where users might use the application
• All expected outcomes
• Situations of use
• Use environments
• User characteristics
• …

If possible you should create more formal models like personas and use cases based on this information already. These models can be used in interaction design immediately.

Depending on the sources of your information the information you gather in these models will be coloured. If you get information from management you might get different insights as if you would get the same info from the people who really do the job. The information/assumptions in these models still need be refined and checked.

It is best to build these models in an interactive workshop. Depending on your situation you can choose an expert-driven or a more collaborative approach. In the expert approach participants are designers, usability professionals, developers etc. In the collaborative approach participants some of the experts along with end-users, managers, decision makers and other stakeholders.  Do not make the group of participants too large, max 12 or 13 participants.

Compile emerging questions

List all issues that are still unclear, under large discussion, conflicting with other needs or requirements etc. This will be based on the build models and the interactive workshop. It is better to set up an inquiry to solve the remaining issues as to keep on discussing them.

Select an efficient way to solve the questions issues

After listing all remaining issues and questions you should find the most efficient way to solve them. Depending on the issue or question at hand the approach might differ highly. Sometimes it is sufficient to make a phone call to the right person in other cases you might need to go into the field and observe the situation at hand. When selecting a suitable method you should consider:

• Who is likely to know?
• What is the impact of the surroundings?
• Are there multiple parties that might be able to answer this question?
• Can I solve the issue by interviewing or do I need to observe a certain situation?

Choose the most efficient way to the information you are looking for.

In part two I will discuss how to: ‘refine and complete the initial models’ and ‘review and validate the models’.