Contextual design in industrial settings: Experiences and recommendations

The Contextual Design (CD) methodology offers a framework for planning and implementing a user-centered design process throughout all project phases. It is team-based and was designed especially for interdisciplinary teams. The application of CD is particularly profitable in projects confronted with implicit requirements and hidden factors of influence. In contrast to many other design and evaluation methods such as focus groups or usability tests, CD does not take users out of their everyday setting and more easily reveals important design issues and contextual influences like users' motivation, values, emotions or real-time interruptions. Despite these advantages, CD is often not used due to high costs in terms of time and effort. This paper provides a report on experiences with CD in two research projects in the industry domain. It is intended to help other researchers to plan and implement a CD process in industrial settings and benefit from our lessons learned.