User Research Projects

This article outlines the Contextual Inquiry and Observational Study conducted by me as part of our Empathic Research Frameworks course.

8 min readJan 7, 2019

Study 1: Contextual Inquiry

During this project the main focus was to go the user environment and capture best possible insights and then create an empathy map.

Challenge

Amazon has acquired the organic supermarket chain Whole Foods, and they’re looking for new product and service opportunities that will serve future customers in their meal preparation. You’ve been hired as a UX Designer/Researcher to help them understand the current experience of meal preparation and the goals users have around preparing a meal.

Research Method

Contextual Inquiry: Contextual inquiry is a semi-structured interview method to obtain information about the context of use, where users are first asked a set of standard questions and then observed and questioned while they work in their own environments.

Because users are interviewed in their own environments, the analysis data is more realistic than laboratory data. Contextual inquiry is based on a set of principles that allow it to be molded to different situations. This technique is generally used at the beginning of the design process and is good for getting rich information about work practices, the social, technical, and physical environments, and user tools. Source

Interviewer/Observer: Gagandeep Singh

Participant: Eish Mittal

Empathy Map

After the contextual inquiry session, I created an empathy map which really helped me to categories the bunch of data. Since I was observing him at the same time, I was able to get lot of insights out of that session.

Study 2: Observational Study

This study was divided into parts Participant observation and Non-participant observation. We were given abstract for each type of study.

What is Participant Observation? : A research method where a participant is observed with his/her consent and the observer takes notes based on what the participant is doing.

Scenario: A wearable technology company is developing software aimed at helping people save time. They want to better understand a number of user activities where they believe their wearable technology could support people in being more efficient while providing delightful and satisfying experiences. They’ve hired you to conduct user research to help them understand the current experiences and behaviors of users as they are completing the grocery shopping activities for their home.

Abstract: The grocery store of today has become a part of the family’s everyday life and visiting it an everyday practice. This research is conducted to focus the current experience and behaviors of the participant during the grocery shopping.

The participant in this study is a person named Gurpreet aged 45 years. He is introduced about the research study at grocery shopping and agreed to participate on the mentioned date and time.

Description

Entering Walmart: It was a busy evening at Walmart in Brampton. Went with my cousin who wanted to buy grocery. Parking was almost full but luckily we got the parking lot. I realised that there was separate place for carts in the parking area but seemed to be messy on that day. He went on not to pick the cart from there rather took it from entrance gate. It seemed like he already knew the grocery section, so didn’t take him long to reach to that section. Looking at his behaviour, he looked very familiar with Walmart.

Grocery Shopping: He took out a piece of paper and started looking for things. I realised later he had the list of items mentioned on that paper which he want to buy. He had the piece of paper in his hand most of the time. After few minutes he took his earphones out and started listening to something along with shopping.There was lot of noise going around as well in Walmart, maybe that was disturbing him. He was very particular about the stuff he wanted to pick and taking good amount of time before adding anything in cart. I saw him using his mobile phone couple of times.

At counter and Exit: After almost an hour, he decided to move towards the counter and pay the bill. I didn’t see any paper in his hand now and even the headphones were not in pocket as well. It was quite evident that he didn’t want to waste much time in queue, so the moment he finished he was searching for line with fewer people. He went on to pay the bills and moved towards the car. He took cart all the way to the car and then put the cart in nearby cart area within the parking location.

Reflections

I was surprised to see him not picking the cart from parking area. Maybe he already knew carts are also available at entrance.
He didn’t see that cart was damaged and end up going back to pick another cart. It’s something the store management have to work on.
I was surprised to see him using piece of paper even in this age of mobile. It left me with curiosity that was it his preference of using a paper to list items or something else.
He didn’t bother even when he was confused about the things.
I wanted to know why he took his earphones out. Was it because he wanted to listen to something or something else?
Does he often do that and take his earphones out during the shopping? I never knew this.
Hardly moved his cart. He used to pick the nearby items and then put it in cart. Then used to move the cart to next section.
He was looking at piece of paper back and forth.
He was in no hurry to fill the cart rather was taking his own time to get the best items.
He didn’t want to wait too long in queue.
I wanted to know if used his mobile for searching about some item or what?
I would like to know about average time he spend in Walmart.
I would also like to know from him what other grocery stores he use.

Emergent Themes

Use of piece of paper to list down items to buy.
Headphones are used during shopping.
Don’t want to waste time standing in queue.

What is Non-Participant Observation? : A research method where an observer without the knowledge of its surrounding people observe them and takes notes based on their behaviour and actions.

Scenario: You’ve been hired by a software company developing a customer loyalty platform for fast food restaurants and cafes. They want to understand the current experiences and behaviors of people as they arrive, order, and consume their food or drinks.

Abstract: The study is aimed at understanding the current experience of people in the coffee shops and the way the customers behave when they arrive, order and consume their food and drinks at the stores. The method of non-participant observation is used in this research.

Description

Order and Pick-up: It was a busy afternoon at Tim Hortons in Toronto. Lot of display screens were there advertising Tim Hortons.People were purposefully waiting in long queue to place the order. However there was another counter with hardly couple of people in line. Just above that counter the signboard says “Mobile Pickup Here”.People were seen using their mobile phones a lot. Few of them been seen using the headsets(assuming they were listening to music) and a few been seen talking to each other while in queue. A small number of people left looking at the queue.Either people were enjoying their time standing in queue while using mobile phones and talking to their friends or they never want to use Tim Hortons mobile app pick up option.

During Meal: Seating arrangement was something to talk about. There was variety of seating choices. People in larger group opted for a table which can accomodate more people, I saw couple of groups with 4 member each. Some were seen sitting alone and enjoy their meal whereas a few were also seem to be sad. But the trend of using headsets and mobile phones was quite common during meals as well. A group was very really having a good time and mostly were joking around & having fun talks. All the chairs were movable. I opted to sit at entrance for some time then shifted my place later. None seem to be complaining about meal, things were very smooth I guess during that time.

After Meal: Surprised to see dustbins, they were mostly overfilled. People had no other option than to keep piling on the existing stuff in dustbin. It wasn’t the best of scenes and the staff took long to clear it than usual. Most of them left with happy faces with few exceptions.

Reflections

Two separate counters with each had its own function.I realised this after looking at signboard with says “Mobile Pickup Here”. Signboard made it easy for user to navigate. That was useful.
Different queue sizes left me with a curiosity. I think situation need to be validated because it can have lot of impact on final solution.
People leaving because of long queue was really unfortunate but this can be worked upon in future and can result in more user base.
I would like to check Tim Hortons mobile app and know how the mobile pick up works.
What was most of the people listen to? Already music was going on in hall.
Can the display screens been used for greater effect like showing some videos which is trending or some song which is trending?
Why few people were sad, this made me curious. Is it personal or because of a bad coffee or something else?
There was music going on in hall as well but many people were seen using their own headset. Was it a case of preferred music or bad music by Tim Hortons.
I want to talk to more people to know there music preferences while eating, if there is any.
I would say overall environment was healthy and most of the people were seen with happy faces.
Dustbins were full which was very unpleasant and the staff member were seem to be least bothered about it.
Some kind of notification staff regarding dustbin overload might help.
I think a feedback taken can help the organisation a lot, so some way of collecting what people are thinking while coming out of Tim Hortons.

Emergent Themes

Use of piece of paper to list down items to buy.
Headphones are used during shopping.
Don’t want to waste time standing in queue.

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