ABSTRACT
Field studies are the best way to find out people’s needs and how people really use technology. These studies can be extremely important to guide the planning and design of new products and systems. But this kind of research requires skills and knowledge that are different from those needed for usability evaluation. This workshop was developed to give you some basic skills for planning field research and two techniques for data collection.

GOALS FOR THE SESSION
Attendees at this session will learn about:
 •  What it takes to make fieldwork more than just collecting stories
 •  Planning a study’s focus
 •  Fine points of two data-gathering techniques
 •  Contextual Inquiry
 •  Artifact Walkthroughs

INTENDED AUDIENCE
This session is aimed at practitioners doing, planning, and leading field research, including developers, designers, and managers who are responsible for user experience or user requirements identification. This is an introductory to intermediate level tutorial. It will be useful for beginners in fieldwork, as well as those with some experience who want to broaden their knowledge of approaches.

INSTRUCTORS’ BACKGROUND
The two presenters are very experienced user-centered design consultants. They specialize in field research and have done many projects for clients such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Intel, eBay, and many others. These studies have had very important impacts on products, ranging from changing the basic product concept to influencing the details of user interaction design. They have taught usability professionals about field research methods at professional conferences around the world, and have written many articles and book chapters on this and other usability topics.