After several rounds of artifact walkthrough style contextual inquiries, we wanted to build a more personal understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with the current bound lab notebook system. We used an interaction design technique called bodystorming to achieve this goal. Bodystorming is, essentially, simply brainstorming conducted ’Äòin the wild’Äô. Generally, a location is selected that is identical or similar to the location for which you are designing and brainstorming is conducted in that context.
For our purposes, we modified the technique by using the artifact as a brainstorming tool rather than the location. Each team member was given a mock bound lab notebook (see Figure 1). They were told to use the lab notebooks according to the instructions given on the inside cover of the official lab notebook (see Figure 2). According to our research, this is approximately the same amount of instruction given to new members of the MEDRAD Innovations Group.

