Ethnography

1
Ethnography

• The systematic study and documentation of human
  activity
• without imposing a prior interpretation on it
• via immersion in the environment of it
• and observation of the routine tasks that
  comprise it
• Make the implicit explicit

2
Ethnography Design

• Ethnography of design
• Studies of developers and their environments
• Ethnography for design
• Use of ethnography results to inform the
  development of designs (e.g., ethnomethodology,
  technomethodology)
• Ethnography within design
• Integration of ethnographic techniques into the
  development process itself

3
Advantages

• Describes how work is accomplished, in practice,
  rather than how it is planned or how individuals
  report the accomplishment of their work
• Recognizes the importance of the context and
  environment on activities
• Recognizes that, although situations may have
  superficial similarities, they are actually
  unique

4
Disadvantages

• Time-consuming
• Difficult to translate between the language of
  sociology and the language of technology
• Results depend critically on the skill of the
  ethnographic observer, as well as the analytic
  methodology

5
Using Ethnographies in Design

• Framework (Hughes et al., 1997)
• Characterize ethnographic results in a way
  amenable to designers needs
• Dimensions
• Distributed coordination
• Plans and procedures
• Awareness of work
• Methods
• Designers use ethnographers documented results
• Designers learn ethnographers methods

6
Methods

• Applying ethnography to design
• Coherence Method
• tries to facilitate the identification of a
  products most important use cases
• by structuring the analysis of data
• Contextual Design
• tries to facilitate the application of fieldwork
  results to product design
• by structuring the data for analysis

7
Coherence

• Viewpoints
• Derived from dimensions identified
• Distributed Coordination
• Plans and Procedures
• Awareness of Work
• Guides the observer to particular aspects of the
  workplace
• Allows several perspectives on a particular
  design to be investigated and reconciled
• Intended for the early stages of design process
  to inform the models underlying the eventual
  design

8
Coherence

• Concerns
• Paper/computer work
• Skill and local knowledge
• Spatio-temporal organization
• Organizational Memory
• Derived from prior experience in ethnographically
  informed design
• Each addressed within different Viewpoints

9
Coherence Matrix
Paperwork Computer Work Skill Use of Local Knowledge Spatial Temporal Organization Organizational Memory
Distributed Coordination
Plans and Procedures
Awareness of Work
10
Contextual Design

• Contextual Inquiry
• Work Modeling
• Consolidation
• Work Redesign
• User Environment Design
• Mockup/Test with Customers
• Putting It into Practice

11
Contextual Inquiry

• Approach
• Apprentice Model the designer works as an
  apprentice to the user
• Underlying Principles
• Context
• Partnership
• Interpretation
• Focus
• Method
• Contextual interview

12
Work Modeling

• Aspects to be modeled
• Work Flow
• Sequence
• Artifact
• Cultural
• Physical

13
Developing Work Models

• Each analyst has a different understanding of the
  session and they have to be reconciled into a
  common view of the work
• Interpretive Roles
• Interviewer
• Modelers
• Recorder
• Moderator/Facilitator
• Rat-Hole watcher

14
Consolidation

• Affinity diagram
• Organize individual notes from interpretation
  discussion
• Groups of notes, similar in some way, emerge from
  the data (induction)
• Work Models
• Consolidate a model thats valid across
  individuals
• Aim is to identify key roles, common ways of
  doing work, and adaptations to specific contexts
• Design Room