mindit-context

mindit-context

The fifth of the eight forces. Run this when the question is "who, when, where, in what state."

The force

Designs are usually shown in one state: the happy path, the desktop viewport, the freshly-onboarded user, the populated screen, the fast network. Real users never see that screen. They see the screen with no data, with a network error, on a phone in sunlight, on their fourth visit when they have forgotten how the product works, when they are tired, when they are trying to recover from a mistake.

Context asks: of all the states this screen will exist in, how many has the design accounted for?

When to run this

• The user shows only desktop mocks and the product is shipped on mobile too.
• The user mentions empty, loading, error, or offline states.
• The user mentions a persona, a user segment, or a specific use environment (one-handed mobile, dark mode, slow network, screen reader, kiosk).
• The user uses words like "what happens when," "edge case," "fallback," "first-time," "returning user."
• The user asks about onboarding, recovery flows, or recovery from mistakes.

How to analyze

1. Map the contexts. List every dimension that matters for this design:

   • Audience: who, with what familiarity, with what motivation.
   • Device and viewport: phones, tablets, desktops, larger; portrait/landscape.
   • State: loading, empty, populated, error, partial, offline, slow, stale, locked, expired.
   • Journey position: first visit, returning, mid-flow, post-completion, recovery.
   • Environment: bright sun, noisy, mobile data, screen reader, voice assistant.

2. Identify which contexts the design has addressed. Compare the design against the list. Each context that has not been addressed is a finding.

3. Distinguish "not addressed" from "explicitly out of scope." Some contexts are intentionally not supported (e.g. tablet not a priority). That is a different finding than "we forgot mobile exists."

4. Score the criteria below.