Contextual Research and Observation

Contextual research and observation are crucial to good usability, including the usability of everyday objects that we love to hate.

I hate my coffee maker. No, I mean I really hate it. It’s a new one, I got it as a gift because my old one (which I quite liked) “broke” when it apparently leapt off the shelf of the cabinet and crashed down onto the floor. Or so my wife would have me believe.

The new one is pretty, but it’s big. My wife does NOT want the coffee maker on the kitchen countertops, so I dutifully make my morning coffee, sit down and dutifully write out this blog (which I think only my mom reads – Hi Mom!) and sip my coffee.

When I’m done blogging, I dutifully put the coffeemaker away, back up into the kitchen cabinet where it lives (out of the way of my wife) and go about my normal business.

Contextual Research and Your Kitchen

So why should I hate my coffee maker? Because I like to program it the night before to have my hot, steaming, nutritious coffee ready for me when I come downstairs the next morning. Which means each night I have to re-set the time, and then re-set the brew time. Each night. Every night. You see, my coffee maker forgets what time it is each time I unplug it from the wall and put it away in it’s wife-friendly hiding space in the cabinet. There’s no battery, so each time I unplug it it “forgets”

I don’t know if usability research was conducted on my coffee maker, but imagine with me that it was, and that you and I are flys on the wall of the usability research design center at the coffee maker manufacturer’ headquarters. We’re watching the usability team conduct usability research with some typical subjects who match coffee-drinker Personas. The usability researchers are busy conducting observations to see exactly what features and functions of coffee makers the users most liked, or thought critical to coffee making success.

Labs Don’t Offer Contextual Observation

As we buzz around the room, we note that the subjects are dutifully using several brands and versions of coffee makers, all of which are plugged into the walls of the lab. What’s missing however is the kitchen environment, and most importantly the wife who refuses to let the coffee maker live on said kitchen countertop. Our imaginary usability team does a good job observing the users, and determines the several features and functions that are critical, such as easy to load coffee filter holders, easy to pour water access, and easy to pull in and out coffee pots.

If our imaginary design team sends this information to the manufacturing team, and they build the coffee maker to specs, then theoretically they’ve achieved coffee maker design success. Or have they? They’ve actually left out a crucial part of coffee maker usability. What about all those people who have to unplug their coffee makers each morning? How will the coffee maker “remember” the time? Many coffee makers use a battery that keeps track of the time when unplugged from the power at the wall. Sadly, this coffeemaker has no such convenience, because our imaginary team did not conduct contextual observation and so did not realize the importance of the battery-kept time.

Contextual Research Offers New Design Opportunities

If our imaginary team had left their design lab, and observed real coffee maker users out in their kitchens, they more than likely would have observed a household or two where the coffee maker was required to be unplugged and put away into a hiding space in a cabinet each morning. They also would have observed that the coffee maker time had to be reset each night in order to brew the coffee at the appropriate time each morning. Seeing the struggle each night our imaginary usability team would realize the importance of a coffee maker that remembers the time.

The moral of this story? Observation in the lab is not contextual observation, and thus does not reflect a user’s environment and their “reality” of usage. Lab observation is helpful, but without contextual observation critical tasks can be overlooked, resulting in a design that is less than perfect, and users who are less than satisfied.

As for me? my coffee is gone (yum, it was good!), and this usability post is about over. My wife is eyeing the coffee maker on the countertop, so I better get going and put my coffee maker away to preserve our happy family environment. I’ll have to re-program the time tonight [sigh].