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Contextual inquiry 0:51
A 51-second explainer of Contextual inquiry, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Contextual inquiry demo
What this video covers
Contextual inquiry means interviewing people as they work, in their own environment, doing real tasks. You observe what they actually do and ask questions while it’s happening. You become the apprentice, they the master - so instead of a tidy account from a desk, you get the messy truth: the workarounds, the interruptions, the context that a meeting-room interview would never reveal.
Ask in a meeting room and you get the official version: "I log the job, then invoice it." Watch it happen on site and you see the truth - the signal drops, so they photograph everything and do it later from the van, one-handed, balancing the phone on the dashboard. The context held the real story, and only being there revealed it.
