Contextual interviews differ from a usability test

In a usability test, you usually have all users do the same scenarios, which gives you comparative data from several people trying the same thing.
You can also combine contextual interviewing and usability testing

• During a contextual interview, take scenarios along and combine watching users do their own work in their environments with asking them to try a few of your tasks.
• During a usability test, interview users to find out the sorts of questions, issues, tasks they would do with the site. Let the users do their own tasks. Also have the users do some of your tasks to get data on tasks from all the users.

Usability testing in Web site development today is often informal and is often conducted much like a contextual interview. However, usability testing can range from informal and qualitative to quite formal and quantitative.

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