Contextual Design: From Customer Data to Implementation

Abstract

Karen Holtzblatt is the inventor of Contextual Inquiry, the customer involvement process adopted by many of the industry’s leaders. In this talk she discusses the issues facing designer, marketers and analysts when they try to define what to build for their market or user population. She describes Contextual Inquiry and the design process based on it, Contextual Design illustrating each point with examples drawn from Karen’s wide experience coaching development teams across the industry. She makes the approach and techniques accessible to people struggling with real projects and real design problems. Dr. Karen Holtzblatt has been designing products and processes in the computer industry for twelve years. As the originator of Contextual Inquiry and Contextual Design, she has pioneered the use of field research methods for requirements gathering in engineering and information technology organizations throughout the world. She has led teams in using these customer-centered techniques to design software, hardware, business processes, and product strategies. She is co-founder of InContext Enterprises Inc., a firm specializing in introducing customer-centered front-end design process into organizations. She holds a