Ethnography

See also: contextual inquiry

Discussion articles

  • An ethnographic approach to user experience: a bibliography
    From Louise Ferguson.

  • Coming of age in ethnography
    "I first heard of ethnography in Sociology 101. In his sonorous voice, our professor regaled us with tales of intrepid anthropologists immersing themselves in little-known cultures in exotic settings. We discussed Margaret Mead's seminal work, Coming of Age in Samoa. We examined the rigors of fieldwork, the tension between observation and participation and the challenge of analysis. It was a great class and I even opted for Soc 102. And that was that. Ethnography faded into the recesses of my mind until reawakened with a start a few years ago when I began hearing it applied to Web design. And it scared me spitless."
    (Dave Rogers - Goto Report)

  • Diary studies: too much information
    When I mention diary studies, I often expect people to either give me a blank stare or have some adverse reaction akin to "blech! that will take too much time/money!" The reality of it is that the methodology isn't as time consuming nor is it all that complicated. Sometimes, we might get a little more information that we bargained for but that's rarely a bad thing.

  • Electoral ethnography
    The British newspaper, The Guardian, is offering an interesting way for British readers to gain an insight into the electoral experience currently sweeping the United States. The content feature, sponsored by Olympus, strongly resembles a primary activity of usability research: the ethnographic study. Ethnography is a technique developed largely by anthropologist Margaret Mead. It involves behavioral observation, contextual interviewing and analysis of users in their work, home or play spaces.

  • Ethnographic action research (PDF)
    "The ethnographic action research approach for the research and development of ICT projects is based on combining two research approaches: ethnography and action research. Ethnography is a research approach that has traditionally been used to understand different cultures. Action research is used to bring about new activities through new understandings of situations. We use ethnography to guide the research process and we use action research to link the research back to the project's plans and activities."
    (Jo Tacchi, Don Slater, Greg Hearn)

  • Ethnographic interviewing for client-centred design
    "In an effort to involve clients earlier and more intensely in interaactive system design, a variety of methods from the fields of ethnography and cognitive anthropology have been applied to the problem. More recently, Hughes, et al. have observed that 'ethnography has a role to play in various phases of system design and makes different contributions to them.' Whereas the issues addressed by those authors are of a general nature, the work reported here focuses specifically on the ethnographic interview and its potential role in the design process. The techniques described are adaptations of those developed by me and my colleagues previously for use in knowledge elicitation for knowledge-based (expert) systems."
    (Larry E Wood)

  • Ethnographic methods: what anthropology teaches us about effective usability research
    When it comes to usability testing, the field of anthropology is offering new insight into effective research methodologies.  Ethnography is a form of research that anthropologists developed to observe how people behave in their own environments--and it's catching on in product development.

  • Field studies: the best tool to discover user needs
    The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about their users. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little design decision becomes a struggle. While techniques, such as focus groups, usability tests, and surveys, can lead to valuable insights, the most powerful tool in the toolbox is the field study. Field studies get the team immersed in the environment of their users and allow them to observe critical details for which there is no other way of discovering.

  • Guide to ethnography
    A WIKI focusing on ethnography in the design, technology and business spheres.

  • Implications of ethnography for design (PDF)
    "Although ethnography has become a common approach in HCI research and design, considerable confusion still attends both ethnographic practice and the metrics by which it should be evaluated in HCI. Often, ethnography is seen as an approach to field investigation that can generate requirements for systems development; by that token, the major evaluative criterion for an ethnographic study is the implications it can provide for design. Exploring the nature of ethnographic inquiry, this paper suggests that 'implications for design' may not be the best metric for evaluation and may, indeed, fail to capture the value of ethnographic investigations."
    (Paul Dourish)

  • Making use of user research
    "By focusing on how a product performs in the lab without broader knowledge of the user's environment and goals, measurement alone may be misleading. To get the most value and meaning out of user feedback it is important to choose the appropriate method for conducting and analyzing user research."
    (Gretchen Anderson)

  • Probing the probes (PDF)
    Ethnographic studies of technology have focused on trying to understand socially organised, naturally occurring uses of technological artifacts. This paper describes the design work of two research teams utililising "cultural probes" as a mode of participatory design for domestic settings.

  • Rapid ethnography for user experience design (PDF)
    Usability proponents apply a variety of methods to evaluate human-computer interfaces. Ethnography is one of the promising research techniques currently available to assist in designing for user experience.

Interviews

  • Interview with Microsoft ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy
    "Lately, it seems the terms anthropology and ethnography are the new buzzwords for innovation in the technology industry. How has this type of research helped global organizations such as Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Adobe create better products and services? In this interview, we ask Ethnographer Tracey Lovejoy to detail some of the ways her team's research practice has directly integrated into the design and development cycles at Microsoft. In this interview, Tracey reveals how designers, developers, technologists and strategists in the technology field and beyond can most effectively utilize ethnographic-based research in their daily practices."
    (Kelly Goto)