Ethnography research for Design

1999

PREFACE 4 FOREWORD 7 USERS IN DESIGN 11 DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY? 29 FIELD RESEARCH & DESIGN 45 PERSONAL STANCES 69 CASE STUDIES 83 CONCLUSION 117 APPROACH 120 LEXICON 123 BIBLIOGRAPHY 128 3 BEYOND DESIGN ETHNOGRAPHY HEAD -Genève (Geneva University of Art and Design) is proud to present its publication Beyond Design Ethnography: How Designers Practice Ethnography Research edited by Nicolas Nova, Professor within the Masters program in Media Design. Although discourse on the origins of design varies according to the different historiographical approaches, it is clear that for several decades now the design research community has been gradually setting out its own markers in the establishment of a scientific discipline. Through stimulating dynamics that combine interdisciplinary approaches and design's constituent elements to develop disciplinary legitimacy, this book represents a new milestone in the short history of design. Starting with the concept of ethnography in its postcolonial sense, it proposes a holistic approach to the added value of that which could be called "ethnographic praxeology" in design. We wish to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Nicolas Nova and to the authors for the complex intermixing of fieldwork, theoretical reflection and graphic representation of all this combined knowledge. Our thanks go to the research team, comprising Lysianne visiting lecturers at the University. Our gratitude also extends to Fabienne Kilchör, a member of the research team, and to Sébastien Fasel, both former students at the University and now regular contributors, for their remarkable graphic design work and data visualization.

1997

Designers of interactive systems often work in environments that am continuously changing. External, uncontrollable change is rapidly becoming a daily impedim~t in many designers' lives. In this age of rapid technologml progression and heightened competition, systems designers must be able to prepare for, cope with, and even pdbrm better because of inevitable change. 13ecauM the nature of user interbce design is to make complicated technology usable, user intedltce designers tve especially afkcted by design changes.

CHI'07 extended …, 2007

In this paper we discuss how we’ve adapted the technique of informance design for use in design ethnography. We detail our design ethnography workflow method and describe our informances.

Design Studies, 2000

ACM SIGDOC Asterisk Journal of Computer Documentation, 1998

... and managemen0 usually are very satisfied with being confronted with what they often take for granted, As a matter of fact, that has often been perceived as a major result from a de, sign project (see eg Bodker and Kenslng, !994; Kenning et al., 1997; Simonsen and Kensing ...

The recent Cox Review highlighted the issue that many more of our product design graduates should possess experiences and skills in, or at least have empathy with, techniques and methods from other areas [1]. With this in mind, this paper presents a series of projects concerned with the role of anthropological techniques and approaches in product design and development. In particular, the anthropological method of ethnography has been used here to support the creative process in the discovery of cultural patterns and subsequently developing products to meet or address those patterns [2]. In this way, ethnography can be viewed as a front-end design research method to investigate everyday social life and culture as a tool for promoting and developing innovation and creativity. This paper presents a brief overview of how ethnography has influenced product development over the last two decades and will show some of the future opportunities where ethnography can influence the design of products and the organisation of design processes. Specifically, the paper will describe recent case studies where ethnography has been used in engineering and product design education within Napier University’s MDes Interdisciplinary Design programme and across a range of undergraduate programs within the University of Strathclyde’s DMEM department. The authors will report on the contrasting styles of both institutions and attempt to draw out best practice to show how emerging ethnographic methods can inform new perspectives in product design education.

Human–Computer Interaction Series, 2012

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

Human-Computer …, 2011

This paper proposes a new design research method to support businesses engaging in the innovation of products and services intended for use in public spaces. Increasing numbers of companies are turning to detailed user/consumer research often based on ideas from the design ethnography community. In an increasingly complex and fast moving business world, there is a need for faster user research that also provides a wider focus on the situation under investigation. A potential solution is using a larger number of fieldworkers on one study. As it would be difficult and costly to utilise many experienced design ethnographers, this may also involve the use of novices. This paper describes the development of a method for adapting existing practices to the emerging context outlined above (i.e. large numbers of fieldworkers, not all of whom necessarily have experience in ethnography). We discuss 3 field studies that show how the method can be applied and how it has been fine-tuned based on the outcomes. This method involves multiple groups of fieldworkers situated at a range of public spaces and each assigned with a specific theme of interest. The wealth of material that this fieldwork activity produces is then digested and insights are generated from it to help inform an understanding of existing behaviour within public space. This paper shows that fieldwork can be reduced to a set of simple tasks that can be successfully distributed over a group of novices facilitated by an experienced design ethnographer. This work will be extended further so that it can be applied as part of a toolkit for use in businesses where there is no established culture of utilising this type of user research.

Communications of the ACM, Vol. 40, No. 7, July, pp. 82-88., 1997

Ethnography originates from anthropology where anthropologists spend extended periods of time with primitive societies making detailed observations of their practices. In a design context the aim of ethnography is to develop a thorough understanding of current work practices as a basis for the design of computer support. A major point in ethnographically inspired approaches is that work is a socially organized activity where the actual behavior differs from how it is described by those who do it. This implies that detailed studies of work must include observations as well as interviews [for example 1, 4, 12]. Blomberg et al. [1] characterize ethnography with four principles and three main techniques: it takes place in natural settings; it is based on the principle of holism, that is, particular behaviors must be understood in the respective context; it develops descriptive understanding in contrast to prescriptive; it is grounded in a member's point-of-view. They use as main techniques observation, interview, and video analyses. Using ethnography in the design of computer based systems has become increasingly prominent especially within the research communities of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), but also within Participatory Design (PD), and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Plowman et al. [9] have recently reviewed all studies using ethnography published within the CSCW literature. In this review, three issues (of particular concern to us) are raised. First, the dominant approach is sociologists conducting the ethnographic studies and informing computer scientists of their findings, such as in debriefing meetings [for example 5, 6]. Second, reports on concrete consequences of a specific design due to such an approach are typically absent. Third, a "need to consider developing hybrid and tailored forms of ethnography which can play different practical roles in the various phases of design" is argued [9 p. 321]. As computer scientists, we have adopted and experimented with ethnography in design [2, 10, 11]. We have developed a method for participatory design where ethnography is an embedded part of the overall design activities [8]. Participatory Design refers to an approach where users play an active part. Users and designers engage in mutual learning activities in order to understand users' current work and generate coherent visions for change [3]. We believe that practitioners can benefit from using ethnography in contextual design (particular when designing systems in a specific organizational context), but they must be aware of the conditions needed for such an approach. This article presents a case from our research in the form of a design project for the Editorial Board of a Film Board (detailed in [10]). The project was conducted in two parts. Traditional techniques like meetings, interviews, document analysis, rich pictures, and mock-ups were used in Part One leading to a first design proposal. In Part Two, experiments with ethno-graphic techniques like observation and videorecording were applied and the effect was evaluated in light of the first design proposal. Here, we present the organization and describe the Editorial Board design project. We spent approximately 14 person weeks over a period of 10 months on the project because it also served as a research project. Had it been a real life consulting job, our estimate would be approximately 10 person weeks.