Context Beats Recall in Complex Work
Explain when contextual inquiry is stronger than a recall-based interview.
If the work is complex, watch the work where it happens. Contextual inquiry combines observation and interview in the participant's real setting. The framework rests on context, partnership, interpretation, and focus. Instead of asking someone to reconstruct work from memory, the researcher watches the work unfold and asks about artifacts, interruptions, exceptions, and tacit rules as they appear. It works because much skilled behavior becomes automatic. People omit steps not because they are hiding them, but because the steps are habitual or embedded in tools around them. By treating the participant as the expert and the researcher as an apprentice,…
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