In-situ Study

A user study conducted in the real-world setting where the technology would actually be used (a museum floor, a corridor with passersby, a commuter train), rather than in a controlled lab or via remotely viewed videos. In-situ studies matter for accessibility research because direct, in-person exposure to assistive technology has been shown to change bystanders' and users' perceptions in ways that watching a video of the same scenario does not. They are more logistically expensive than online or lab studies and typically involve smaller samples, which is why researchers increasingly pair in-situ studies with larger online surveys to balance ecological validity against sample size.