Observe and interview users in their natural environment to uncover real workflows, workarounds, and unspoken needs.
Contextual Interview observes and interviews users in their real environment to uncover workflows, workarounds, and unspoken needs firsthand.
A Contextual Interview is a field research method where researchers observe and interview users while they perform real tasks in their actual work or home environment. Unlike traditional interviews conducted in meeting rooms or labs, contextual interviews capture the rich environmental details, social dynamics, tool usage, and workflow interruptions that shape authentic user behavior. UX researchers, product designers, and service designers use this method when they need to understand not just what users say they do, but what they actually do in practice. The researcher adopts a master-apprentice model, positioning themselves as a learner while the participant demonstrates their expertise in their own context. This approach reveals workarounds, shortcuts, environmental constraints, and tacit knowledge that users cannot accurately recall or articulate outside their natural setting. Contextual interviews are particularly valuable in domains where workflows are complex, tools are specialized, or environmental factors significantly influence behavior -- such as healthcare, enterprise software, manufacturing, and professional services. The method generates deep, situated understanding that informs personas, journey maps, and design requirements grounded in real-world evidence rather than self-reported assumptions.
Determine the purpose and goals of the contextual interview. Identify the research questions you want to answer and create a hypothesis.
Define the target audience and recruit participants based on your project's criteria. Aim for a diverse representation of users to uncover a range of insights.
Create a semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions that allow participants to share their experiences, thoughts, and opinions related to the research objectives.
Coordinate with participants to schedule the contextual interviews, considering the location, duration, recording methods, and availability of both parties. An optimal session lasts approximately 1-1.5 hours.
During the interviews, researchers observe participants perform tasks in their environment, ask questions, and actively listen to uncover patterns and insights tied to the research objectives.
Document important observations, quotes, and insights throughout the interview. Obtain consent from participants to record audio or video for later analysis.
After each interview, write a brief summary highlighting key insights, quotations, and observations that address the research objectives.
Thoroughly analyze the data collected throughout the interviews, searching for patterns, trends, and correlations that help answer the research questions and support or refute the hypothesis.
Compile findings into a concise and informative report, including an executive summary, participant profiles, key themes and patterns, actionable recommendations, and supporting evidence.
Present the report to stakeholders, highlighting the insights and recommendations gained from the contextual interviews. Use visuals and storytelling techniques to communicate the impact and implications of the research.
After conducting contextual interviews, your team will have rich, situated understanding of how users actually perform tasks in their real environments. You will have documented workflows, workarounds, environmental constraints, tool usage, and social dynamics that shape the user experience. The findings will include detailed participant profiles, annotated photographs of workspaces and artifacts, transcribed key quotes, and identified patterns across participants. Teams typically discover significant gaps between how users describe their behavior and what they actually do, revealing design opportunities that would be invisible through lab-based research alone. The insights inform personas, journey maps, and design requirements grounded in observed reality rather than self-reported assumptions.
Prepare a set of questions in advance but remain flexible to follow interesting threads that emerge during observation.
Follow the master-apprentice model: position yourself as learning from the user who is the expert in their own context.
Ask users to think aloud as they perform tasks to capture real-time reasoning and decision-making processes.
Focus on understanding why users do things, not just what they do -- probe deeper when you observe interesting behaviors.
Document artifacts, tools, and environmental factors visible in the user's workspace that influence their tasks.
Look for workarounds, shortcuts, and adaptations users have created -- these reveal unmet needs and design opportunities.
Schedule interviews during actual work periods rather than breaks to observe authentic task performance and interruptions.
Capture both verbal explanations and observed behaviors, noting any discrepancies between what users say and do.
Asking questions that suggest desired answers biases the results. Use open-ended questions and let participants demonstrate their natural approach before probing with follow-up questions.
Simply watching users perform tasks misses the reasoning behind their behavior. When you notice something interesting, ask what they are doing and why to understand the underlying motivation.
Observing users during breaks or off-hours misses the authentic context of their work. Schedule sessions during real working periods to capture genuine workflows, interruptions, and time pressures.
Relying only on notes loses rich environmental details. With permission, photograph workspaces, tools, notes, and workarounds that reveal how users have adapted their environment.
Single sessions may only capture routine behavior. Consider multiple visits or combining with diary studies to understand variation across different days, tasks, and contexts.
Structured document with key questions, topics, and goals for the session.
Signed forms covering study purpose, data usage, and participant rights.
Recorded sessions capturing verbal responses and environmental context.
Written records of participant responses, actions, and thought processes.
Summary of demographic and behavioral information for each participant.
Synthesis of insights, patterns, quotes, and observed behaviors across sessions.
Prioritized improvement suggestions with implementation steps.