View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by IUScholarWorks AN ASSESSMENT OF CONTEXTUAL DESIGN AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO THE DESIGN OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES Mark Notess Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education, Indiana University May 2008 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee Thomas M. Duffy, Ph.D., Chair Eli Blevis, Ph.D., Director Elizabeth Boling, M.F.A. Erik Stolterman, Ph.D. May 6, 2008 ii © 2008 Mark Notess ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii DEDICATION To Liz, Hannah, Brian, and Ben. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my doctoral committee for their expert guidance and continual encouragement: Tom Duffy (chair), Eli Blevis (director), Elizabeth Boling, and Erik Stolterman. The material in chapters 2 through 4 is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9909068. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. For the research and analysis reported in chapter 2 I would like to acknowledge the help of my students: George Bergstrom, Rovy Branon, Jason Cooper, and Cynthia Spann. In addition, Elizabeth Boling and Karen Holtzblatt provided expert critique. Chapter 3 resulted from a collaboration with Eli Blevis. Chapter 4 benefited from the wise guidance of Elizabeth Boling. The research reported in chapter 5 owes to the willing involvement of design practitioners worldwide who took time to fill out my survey, and especially to those practitioners who provided so many thoughtful insights during the telephone interviews. v ABSTRACT Mark Notess AN ASSESSMENT OF CONTEXTUAL DESIGN AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO THE DESIGN OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES Increased use of computing technology in support of learning necessitates the collaboration of instructional designers with technology designers. Yet the instructional designer portrayed in current instructional design textbooks does not participate in technology design but instead designs instructional strategies and materials that are implemented by others. For instructional systems design as a field to move towards the kinds of collaborative work required for the development of effective, innovative educational technologies, there is a need for methods that can integrate the concerns and activities of both instructional and technology designers. This research critically examines a human-computer interaction design method, contextual design (CD), assessing how practitioners employ and characterize it as a method and explores its potential utility in instructional systems design. CD is briefly described and available evaluative studies are summarized. Next, three studies are presented: a case study of CD usage in the design of a digital music library, a case study of CD integrating with another design approach called PRInCiPleS, and a learning-oriented analysis of CD work models. Based on the findings of the literature review and these three studies, a practitioner survey and interview guide were developed. Results from 106 survey respondents and 16 interviews characterized CD as a guiding framework and a collection of useful techniques. However, because of its resource requirements and other limitations, the method is rarely used in full or exclusively. Respondents reported valuing the ability of CD to uncover and communicate user needs but also suggested CD did not provide a means of resolving conflicts between user needs and organizational objectives. Implications of these results are explored for three constituencies: developer- designers of instructional places or interactive materials, educators of instructional designers who will work with software developers, and educational researchers and their graduate students. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 ISD’s Need For Design Methods Addressing Interactive Systems ............................1 Contextual Design as a Distinguished Example Method............................................4 Origin ...........................................................................................................4 Principles......................................................................................................5 The Six Steps of Contextual Design ............................................................6 A Review of Literature Assessing Contextual Design ..............................10 My Experience ...........................................................................................21 The Goals, Structure and Benefits of This Research ................................................23 Goals ..........................................................................................................23 Structure .....................................................................................................23 Benefits ......................................................................................................25 A Note on Terminology ............................................................................................25 2. CONTEXTUAL DESIGN AND INSTRUCTIONAL SYSTEMS DESIGN ................27 Instructional Systems Design....................................................................................27 The Case Study .........................................................................................................28 Contextual Inquiry .....................................................................................29 Work Modeling ..........................................................................................29 Flow Model ................................................................................................30 Sequence Model .........................................................................................31 Cultural Model ...........................................................................................32 Physical Model...........................................................................................33 Artifact Model ............................................................................................35 Insights .......................................................................................................35 vii Work Notes ................................................................................................37 Consolidation .............................................................................................37 Work Redesign...........................................................................................39 Paper Prototyping.......................................................................................44 The Ongoing Value of the Data .................................................................46 Conclusion ................................................................................................................46 Contextual Design and Criticisms of ISD ..................................................46 Technology Design and Instructional Design ............................................48 Related and Further Research ....................................................................49 3. INTEGRATING HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN METHODS FROM DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES: CONTEXTUAL DESIGN AND PRINCIPLES ......51 PRInCiPleS ...............................................................................................................51 Case Study ................................................................................................................52 Comparison and Compatibility .................................................................................61 Conclusion ................................................................................................................64 4. CONTEXTUAL DESIGN MODELS AND THE REPRESENTATION OF LEARNING ACTIVITY ..........................................................................................66 Introduction ...............................................................................................................66 Background ................................................................................................67 Educational Contexts .................................................................................68 Contribution of this Chapter ......................................................................68 The Models: Analysis and Critique ..........................................................................69 Method