[Sigia-l] making the case for field research for innovation

[kipp lynch]

Ziya wrote:

>The easiest way to convince reluctant management to buy into field
research 
>is not to use highfalutin ethnographic terminology, but to remind them
that 
>their salesforce is engaged in 'field research' pretty much all day
long. 

Sometimes we seem to live in a field that is afraid of our own domain
specific terminology. I'm not advocating that we return to the jargon
laden web days when people coined meaningless terms like "experience
modelers" or "design scientists", but we shouldn't deny our background
and avoid terms like "contextual inquiry" or "ethnographic research",
though that last term is often used incorrectly to mean any kind of
field research. 

I don't see many technologists or business people avoiding their domain
specific terminology. Granted, more people are familiar with tech
terminology than UX terms, but that doesn't mean we need to dumb down
everything we say so they can easily relate to it. Sometimes an
unfamiliar phrase promotes discussion, other times people roll their
eyes. We just have to be capable of responding to both.

This doesn't mean we should use obscure references or pretentious
nonsense, nor does it mean that we shouldn't speak the users' language.
It just means that we should be able to speak intelligently and not
explain everything as if it were "just like (fill in the blank), only
different."

--kipp

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