In order to assess your client's Web concerns, your team will collect information
about its organizational context. Throughout your research, each team member
should visit the client context at least twice. Your investigation of your client's
context will consist of the three field research methods discussed in this document:
an interview, document analyses, and an observation. Be certain to consult both
the course calender and the Project Planning Calendar in order
to plan your client research.
Interview
Conduct at least one interview of an established member
of the client context; an interview with the client contact person likely
is a good starting point for your team's data collection.
Goals for interview
Your goals for your initial team interview are twofold:
1. to gain useful and relevant data about your client context.
2. to begin to assess which documents you want to collect and how you want to conduct your observation.
Your 45-minute to 1-hour interview provides you with an excellent
opportunity to learn about how relationships function within your client context.
As an established member of your client context, your interviewee has experience
with the criteria, standards, priorities, and procedures related to different
structures within the context. The goal of the interview process should be for
you to gain insight into these experiences. Your team will need to write and
discuss questions. Be certain to follow guidelines for conducting interviews,
which are described in the Ethical Guidelines for Interviewing
Clients document.
Document analyses
Collect and analyze at least two (2) documents from or related to your client
context (e.g., policy statements, manuals, handbooks, memos, Web pages, reports,
forms, etc.).
Goals for document analyses
Documents can provide you cues about the standards, expectations, and assumptions
held by members of an organization. Documents from your client context can both
provide information about the current situation at the organization as well
as offer an historical perspective on the client's communicational context.
Also, documents from related or similar (in terms of size, purpose, clientele,
etc.) organizations can help your generate ideas that might be appropriate and
effective for your client context
Considerations for document analyses
After collecting your documents, you will need to analyze each of them in
terms of your client's context and Web needs. As you are analyzing the documents
that you collect consider the following:
Formal Features: The formatting, tone, and structure of a document are not accidental but instead are related to the functions and audiences perceived by a document's author/s. Thus, examining such features can provide insight into the significance (or lack thereof) of a document within a context.
Accessibility: The location, cost, and availability of a document also reflect its purposes within a context. Therefore, as you analyze a client document, consider how you became aware of it, how widely available it is, and how resources are/were allocated to its production, distribution, and maintenance.
Potential Audiences: Considering both primary and secondary audiences of a document is essential for determining its significance and functions. Thus, as you analyze a document, think about who does or does not consult it and why they do or don't.
Field observation
Your team should conduct at least one 45-minute to one-hour observation
and compose detailed field notes for that focused visit.
Goals for observation
Though each team member should visit the client site more than once, visits
to conduct interviews and collect documents often do not provide you the
opportunity to carefully watch and record the actions within the site.
Thus, observing and taking notes about the dynamics within your client
context can help you to cross-check your general impressions of the client's
communicational context.
considerations for observation
The observation should allow you to research the dynamic relationships
in your client context. Such research can provide insight into assumptions,
values, expectations, procedures, etc. within your client context. Remember
to consider issues such as geography of the space, relations among persons
and objects, resource expenditures, and atmosphere or tone.