When finished with the introduction and general interview, make a clear transition into the contextual interview portion of the meeting. Explain what will happen during the rest of the session and what you need:

- Let the user know that you will watch while they work and that they should expect you to interrupt whenever you see something interesting to discuss.
- If it is a bad time for interruption, they should tell you and continue until a better stopping point.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Use this 4-part structure as a template to guide your contextual inquiry session:

- The primer
- The transition
- The contextual interview
- The wrapup

Contextual inquiry session structure

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/contextual-inquiry/

Contextual Inquiry: Inspire Design by Observing and Interviewing Users in Their Context

This step is meant to ease the participant into the session.

- Introduce yourself and take some time to build rapport with your participant.
- Indicate what you hope to achieve during the interview and that you expect the participant to correct any misinterpretations you may develop as you learn.
- Discuss confidentiality and get approval for any filming or recording you may be doing.
- Begin discussing the subject you are interested in. Ask for a summary of the work to be done during the session and ask for any relevant opinions. Make sure to validate these opinions and explanations with your own observation, because recollection is not entirely accurate.

Contextual inquiry structure part 1: the primer

Contextual inquiry structure part 2: the transition

The contextual interview goes through multiple iterations of a 2 step pattern:
- Watch and learn.
- Stop and initiate discussion when the user does something you don’t immediately understand,  when you want to confirm an interpretation, or to allow the participant to validate or invalidate your understanding of the user’s mental model

Try to understand the underlying processes:
- Be aware of external resources being used.
- Ask about standard steps vs. extraneous or uncommon variations in their processes and the reasons behind them.
- Explain your interpretations of their tasks and workflow for the users to confirm or correct.

Contextual inquiry structure part 3: the contextual interview

At the end:
- Ask any final clarifying questions.
- Review your notes and summarize what you took away from the interview by explaining your interpretation of the observed processes. This is the particpant's chance to give final clarifications and correct your understanding.

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