Fieldwork Activity

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Fieldwork Activity

• Sara Petry Jessica Richman
• 17 April 2008

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Observation

• Types of fieldwork ... observation, interview,
  document analysis
• Observation ... most common in HCI
• The Master-Apprentice model is common in
  observational research
• Learning to do observations well takes time

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The Activity

• Break into groups of 3 or 4
• 1 person will be the user, others will be
  researchers
• Go to http//www.google.com/experimental
• 5 minutes to play with any or all of the
  experimental searches
• Researchers - note areas of improvement for each
  search
• 5 minute debrief with the whole group

4

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vbe63nTdnwFYfeature
  related

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Situated Actions, Lucy Suchman, 1987

• All this complexity
• Action is context-sensitive
• Planning is not always followed and sometimes a
  rationalization
• Language is easily misinterpreted

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An Ethnographic Approach to Design, Jeanette
Blomberg, et al, 2003

• Historical anthropology and relativism
• Philosophical/epistemological
• Natural settings
• Holistic
• Descriptive
• Members point of view

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Practical Ethnography

• Your experiences
• Sampling
• Gaining access
• Observation, self-reporting techniques, remote
  data collection, digital observation
• Artifact analysis

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Experience Models and Opportunity Maps
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Profiles and Storyboards
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Questions?