What is Contextmapping?

Contextmapping is an approach to design in which designers use peoples

everyday lives to inform and inspire themselves for ideation.
In contextmapping users and designers work together on the basis of
expertise: designers are experts of the innovation process, whereas users are
experts of their own experiences. The methodology is developed at Delft
University of Technology and is nowadays spread in design practice
worldwide. Explorative techniques are used to learn about the needs, wishes,
motivations and experiences of everyday people and use this in designing. It
makes mainly use of qualitative research, analysis and conceptualization
methods and supports empathy with the end-users and inspiration for better
solutions.

procedure of contextmapping (Sleeswijk Visser et al, 2005)

In practice, this procedure is often more loosely used. The approach fits any
co-design process, because it helps teams in clearly defining the roles, aims,
and in eliciting deeper needs of every participating stakeholder. Be it the
client, the end-user, the customer, the employee, the caregiver, the
designer, the researcher etc. The procedure can also be applied beyond the

fuzzy front end to explore and evaluate new concepts with end users and
stakeholders.
Contextmapping can be used for various purposes in the design
process
There are many ways to conduct design research. We are talking about
contextmapping if the approach contains the following three elements:
1.

Sensitizing people. Sensitizing means literally making people

sensitive for. People are often not aware of their everyday
experiences and what exactly is meaningful to them. Also other
stakeholders might benefit from sensiziting to find out their true needs
and wishes in an innovation project.

2.

Making use of generative tools. Whether you do interviews or

group sessions, generative tools will always help to make the implicit
more explicit.

3.

Used for design purposes. It is in the end an approach for

designing, not research per se. It might look quite similar to
ethnographic studies, and it is! But the purpose is different: In
ethnography the aim is to document the entire situation as detailed as
possible, so all insights are relevant. In contextmapping, the aim is to
come with new solutions. A complete set of insights are not gathered,
often just a few of them are taken along into the design process to
inspire new product and or service ideas.

A little bit background:

The contextmapping procedure is developed at ID-StudioLab, Delft University
of Technology, The Netherlands by Froukje Sleeswijk Visser and Pieter Jan
Stappers.

Stappers started a project with industrial design student Froukje Sleeswijk

Visser to explore the potential of generative tools as a design research
method for inspiration in the fuzzy front end.
In her graduation project Froukje developed a procedure in which generative
tools are part of the approach and she coined the term contextmapping.
They were so triggered by the potential of this approach that soon a PhD
project was formulated to develop the approach into further detail and to
develop educational material to embed it into education of Industrial Design
Engineering at the Delft University of Technology.
Since 2003, students are taught contextmapping at the Faculty of Industrial
Design Engineering. Since 2006, the first graduates started deploying their
contextmapping skills in design practice. Moreover other design schools
started teaching contextmapping as well. Nowadays it is well infused in
design practice internationally:
o

Product and service development companies appreciate the value of

finding the right solutions for their end-users

Design agencies and consultancies appreciate the quick check with

real users

Governmental institutions are helped to create more user-centred

services

For organisations in general it helps to better collaborate with various

stakeholders

http://contextmapping.com/about/