Summary: Ease of use is the easy part. What comes before ease of use is context, which is the environment, circumstances, and conditions under which a product will be used.

Understanding Context of Use: The Critical Weak Spot for Product Managers

Product managers have a lot on their plates: market research, stakeholder management, product roadmaps, feature prioritization, and the list goes on. Yet, one glaring weak spot often goes unnoticed but has a massive impact on product success: understanding the “context of use.”

Fixating on ease of use is easy. After all, we’ve been bombarded with the mantra of “ease of use” for decades. But here’s the catch: context of use comes before ease of use. If you’re not nailing the context, you’re setting yourself up for failure, no matter how easy it is to use.

What Is Context of Use?

Context of use is the environment, circumstances, and conditions under which a product will be used. It’s not just about where or when your product will be used, but also why, by whom, and in what emotional or physical state. It’s the broader picture: including cultural nuances, user expectations, and the specific needs driven by the situation where it’s used.

For instance, consider a mobile app designed for emergency medical situations. The context here is high stress, limited time, and potentially life-threatening scenarios. No amount of ease of use will make up for a product that doesn’t function well in such critical conditions. The app needs to be designed with this context in mind, ensuring quick access, clear instructions, and reliability under pressure. If the product doesn’t consider this context, it fails.

Why Context of Use Comes Before Ease of Use

The UX community has long understood the importance of context of use. However, UX and product management gurus haven’t emphasized it enough. We hear a lot about the importance of customer journeys, personas, and user flows. However, the discussion often skips over the specific contexts in which these journeys and personas interact with the product.

Why this matters: Context dictates how users will perceive and interact with your product. It shapes their expectations and influences their decisions. Without a deep understanding of the context, you might optimize for the wrong things. You could end up with a product that is theoretically easy to use but fails in real-world application because it doesn’t align with the user’s situational needs.

e-Bike Rental Context of Use

Consider e-bike rental context of use. Here are a few contextual factors that a certain e-bike provider I encountered (now out of business) didn’t think about when designing and developing from the warm comfort of their homes or offices.

• Downloading the required app can take twice as long in a low-data signal area or not at all. Context Response: Offer a web-based version or perhaps a “quick activation” (enter code) on a website to unlock. How about unlock with mobile pay (works offline) and “register” later?
• Accessing the apps “activation of bike” flow might take place in the rain, in a hurry, or under other stress conditions. Context Response: Make activation easy (in China, you scan a QR code, and you’re off). In many cities, you go through 3-5 screens to get it going.
• The user might be (will be) a visitor from abroad, and their credit card requires additional authentication (to that other SIM number if using a local SIM—which many people require due to weak data roaming agreements). Context Response: Save their credit card for easy ‘re-rental’. Offer PayPal, AliPay etc.
•  Design for repeat use; Reward longer use. Context Response: Make the 2nd and 10th rental super fast and super smooth. Make it easy for one user to ‘share the rental’ with other users. Some e-bikes have a “rent 3 at a time”. e.g. Donkey Bikes in Amsterdam encourages additional use by lowering the cost. The longer you ride, the cheaper it is.

Key Insight: The context requirements drive the design and functionality decisions, not the other way around.

Context of Use in AI, IoT, and AR

This concept isn’t just limited to traditional products. It’s even more critical in emerging fields like IoT, AR, and AI. These technologies are inherently context-sensitive. An IoT device’s value depends on how well it integrates with and responds to its environment (context-awareness). AR experiences must adapt to different physical spaces and user conditions. AI needs to understand not just the query but the context behind it to deliver relevant results.

When designing products or services in these spaces, ignoring the context of use can lead to significant mismatches between what the technology can offer and what the user actually needs. Take AI, for example. If an AI-powered chatbot doesn’t understand the urgency of a user’s request (say, in a customer service setting), it could frustrate rather than assist. The AI needs contextual intelligence to prioritize and respond appropriately.

Building Contextual Intelligence (CI)

The more you sense the context, the more contextual intelligence (CI) you build. Contextual intelligence is the ability to recognize and interpret the context of use and adjust your product or service accordingly. It’s what makes a product not just good but joyful- think Moment of Truth.

Building CI requires active research, observation, and a deep dive into the environments where your product or service will live. This is where the value of empowered UX teams comes in. These teams should be brimming with CI—constantly thinking about how different contexts affect user interactions and outcomes.

To build CI, consider the following steps:

1. Field Research: Get out of the office and into the environment where your product will be used. Observe real users in real situations.
2. User Testing in Various Contexts: Don’t just test in a lab setting. Simulate different environments and conditions to see how your product performs.
3. Iterate with Context in Mind: Use your findings to continuously refine your product, ensuring it works effectively in all relevant contexts.
4. Cross-functional Collaboration: Ensure that product management, design, and UX teams work closely together. Share insights and make CI a shared responsibility.
5. Leverage Data: Use analytics and user feedback to identify patterns related to context. Adjust your product based on this data to better meet users’ needs.

Call to Action:

Encourage your teams to think beyond the surface level of usability and dive deep into the environments and situations where your product will be used. Foster a culture where CI is valued and integrated into every stage of product development. Three things:

• Don’t let context of use be your weak spot. Make it your strength.
• Address your Broken User Journeys with context sensing.
• Conduct Insight Sprints as often as you conduct Design Sprints.