I have found it is generally better to open the day with a group meeting. No matter how much explaining you do ahead of time, you will still likely be scheduled to meet with the wrong folks.
The group meeting will allow the managers to have their say and give them a forum to tell you many things. You can then use that to start asking specific task questions. Usually during the course of these questions, they will say "Well, Sue does that". Great time to say, "I'd love to spend some time with Sue later today then to see how she does it." I have found that during the course of this opening meeting, names of individuals get brought up as the person who does X. This is the best way for you to then select whom you want to meet with and learn more about task x. Of course, as the prior posted mentioned. Preparation is the most important thing to do. Know what you want to observe, know how many events you want to observe, have research questions you want answered. Prepare a study guide.... During the course of the day, you will be presented with more opportunities then you have time to follow-up on. You need to have spent time developing your study guide so you can make on-the-fly decisions on how to best use your time. Even if your research techniques are all about not interfering with the user and letting it naturally flow. If you have not made decisions about what you want to learn, then you will not learn anything. This is more practical then ideal. Ideally you would have lots of time to spend with everyone, so you will be able to learn all you can. Practically, you have a very limited amount of time to spend with a limited number of folks. So you have to plan on how to use it wisely. Get clearance before you even bring out any recording devices. Many companies do not like it. Good luck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38073 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
