Contextual Design
Defining Customer-Centered Systems
- 1st Edition - September 1, 1997
- Imprint: Morgan Kaufmann
- Authors: Karen Holtzblatt, Hugh Beyer
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 5 5 8 6 0 - 4 1 1 - 7
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 5 0 3 0 4 - 2
This book introduces a customer-centered approach to business by showing how data gathered from people while they work can drive the definition of a product or process while… Read more
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Request a sales quoteThis book introduces a customer-centered approach to business by showing how data gathered from people while they work can drive the definition of a product or process while supporting the needs of teams and their organizations. This is a practical, hands-on guide for anyone trying to design systems that reflect the way customers want to do their work. The authors developed Contextual Design, the method discussed here, through their work with teams struggling to design products and internal systems. In this book, you'll find the underlying principles of the method and how to apply them to different problems, constraints, and organizational situations.
Contextual Design enables you to
+ gather detailed data about how people work and use systems
+ develop a coherent picture of a whole customer population
+ generate systems designs from a knowledge of customer work
+ diagram a set of existing systems, showing their relationships, inconsistencies, redundancies, and omissions
Contextual Design enables you to
+ gather detailed data about how people work and use systems
+ develop a coherent picture of a whole customer population
+ generate systems designs from a knowledge of customer work
+ diagram a set of existing systems, showing their relationships, inconsistencies, redundancies, and omissions
Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems
by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt
Part 3 Seeing across Customers
Chapter 8 Consolidation
Chapter 9 Creating One View of the Customer
Chapter 10 Communicating to the Organization
Part 4 Innovation from Data
Chapter 11 Work Redesign
Chapter 12 Using Data to Drive Design
Chapter 13 Design from Data
Part 5 System Design
Chapter 14 System Design
Chapter 15 The User Environment Design
Chapter 16 Project Planning and Strategy
Part 6 Prototyping
Chapter 17 Prototyping as a Design Tool
Chapter 18 From Structure to User Interface
Chapter 19 Iterating with a Prototype
Conclusion
Chapter 20 Putting It into Practice
Afterword
Readings and Resources
References
Index
by Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt
- Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
- The challenges for design
The challenge of fitting into everyday life
Creating an optimal match to the work
Keeping in touch with the customer
The challenge of design in organizations
Teamwork in the physical environment
Managing face-to-face design
The challenge of design from data
The complexity of work
Maintaining a coherent response
Contextual Design
Part 1 Understanding the Customer
Chapter 2 Gathering Customer Data
- Marketing doesn't provide design data
The rocky partnership between IT and its clients
Improving communication with the business
The role of intuition in design
Contextual Inquiry reveals hidden work structure
Chapter 3 Principles of Contextual Inquiry
- The master/apprentice model
The four principles of Contextual Inquiry
Context
Partnership
Interpretation
Focus
The contextual interview structure
Chapter 4 Contextual Inquiry in Practice
- Setting project focus
Designing the inquiry for commercial products
Designing the inquiry for IT projects
Designing the interviewing situation
Deciding who to interview
Making it work
Part 2 Seeing Work
Chapter 5 A Language of Work
- Using language to focus thought
Graphical languages give a whole picture
Work models provide a language for seeing work
Work models reveal the important distinctions
Chapter 6 Work Models
- The flow model
Recognizing communication flow
Creating a bird's-eye view of the organization
The sequence model
Collecting sequences during an interview
The artifact model
Collecting artifacts during an interview
Inquiring into an artifact
The cultural model
Recognizing the influence of culture
Making culture tangible
The physical model
Seeing the impact of the physical environment
Showing what matters in the physical environment
The five faces of work
Chapter 7 The Interpretation Session
Building a shared understanding
The structure of an interpretation session
Team makeup
Roles
Running the session
The sharing session
Part 3 Seeing across Customers
Chapter 8 Consolidation
- Creating one representation of a market
A single representation is a marketing and planning tool
Facilitate the partnership between IT and customers
IT can be the voice for coherent business processes
Representations of work stabilize requirements
Seeing the whole
Chapter 9 Creating One View of the Customer
- The affinity diagram
Consolidating flow models
Consolidating sequence models
Consolidating artifact models
Consolidating physical models
Consolidating cultural models
The thought process of consolidation
Chapter 10 Communicating to the Organization
- Communication Techniques
Walking the affinity
Walking the consolidated models
Touring the design room
Tailoring the language to the audience
Marketing
Customers
Engineering
Management
Usability
Models manage the conversation
Part 4 Innovation from Data
Chapter 11 Work Redesign
- Customer data drives innovation
Creative design incorporates diversity
Contextual Design introduces a process for invention
Work redesign as a distinct design step
Chapter 12 Using Data to Drive Design
- The consolidated flow model
Role switching
Role strain
Role sharing
Role isolation
Process fixes
Target the customer
Pitfalls
The consolidated cultural model
Interpersonal give-and-take
Pervasive values
Public relations
Process fixes
Pitfalls
The consolidated physical model
The reality check
Work structure made real
Movement and access
Partial automation
Process fixes
Pitfalls
Consolidated sequence models
What the user is up to
How users approach a task
Unnecessary steps
What gets them started
Process fixes
Pitfalls
Consolidated artifact models
Why it matters
What it says
How it chunks
What it looks like
Pitfalls
Using metaphors
Using models for design
Chapter 13 Design from Data
- Walking the data
Priming the brain
Creating a vision
Creating a common direction
Making the vision real
Process and organization design
Marketing plans
System design
Storyboards
Redesigning work
Part 5 System Design
Chapter 14 System Design
- Keeping the user's work coherent
Breaking up the problem breaks up the work
A system has its own coherence
The structure of a system
Designing structure precedes UI design
The User Environment Design
Representing the system work model
The User Environment formalism in the design process
Chapter 15 The User Environment Design
- The reverse User Environment Design
Building the User Environment from storyboards
Defining a system with the User Environment Design
User Environment Design walkthroughs
Probing User Environment Design structure
Chapter 16 Project Planning and Strategy
- Planning a series of releases
Partitioning a system for implementation
Coordinating a product strategy
Driving concurrent implementation
Part 6 Prototyping
Chapter 17 Prototyping as a Design Tool
- The difficulty of communicating a design
Including customers in the design process
Using paper prototypes to drive design
Prototyping as a communication tool
Chapter 18 From Structure to User Interface
- Using the User Environment Design to drive the UI
Mapping to a windowing UI
Mapping to a command-line UI
Mapping to UI controls
A process to design the UI
Chapter 19 Iterating with a Prototype
- Building a paper prototype
Running a prototype interview
Context
Partnership
Interpretation
Focus
The structure of an interview
Setup
Introduction
Transition
The interview
Wrap-up
The interpretation session
Iteration
Completing a design
Conclusion
Chapter 20 Putting It into Practice
- The principles of Contextual Design
The principle of data
The principle of the team
The principle of design thinking
Breaking up design responsibilities across groups
Addressing different design problems
Team structure
Maintaining a strategic customer focus
Handling organizational change
Designing the design process
Afterword
Readings and Resources
References
Index
- Edition: 1
- Published: September 1, 1997
- Imprint: Morgan Kaufmann
- No. of pages: 496
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9781558604117
- eBook ISBN: 9780080503042
KH
Karen Holtzblatt
Karen Holtzblatt is a co-founder of InContext Enterprises, Inc., a firm that works with companies, coaching teams to design products, product strategies, and information systems from customer data. Karen Holtzblatt developed the Contextual Inquiry field data gathering technique that forms the core of Contextual Design and is now taught and used world-wide.
Affiliations and expertise
InContext Enterprises, Inc., Concord, MA, USAHB
Hugh Beyer
Hugh Beyer is a co-founder of InContext Enterprises, Inc., a firm that works with companies, coaching teams to design products, product strategies, and information systems from customer data. Hugh Beyer has pioneered the link between the customer-centered front end and object-oriented design.
Affiliations and expertise
InContext Enterprises, Inc., Concord, MA, USA