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

[kipp lynch]

Ziya wrote "kipp lynch" wrote:

> I'm, in general, against any foisting of domain-specific jargon upon
>unsuspecting bystanders.

Bit of a straw man argument - Jargon is a pejorative term, not one that
I used. I would say "meaningful terminology." And I can't remember the
last time I forced terminology on "unsuspecting bystanders," usually
they are thoughtful people in the business field who asked me to be
there.

>I assure you, at least in the jungles of New York City, you won't get
very
>far with "ethnographic research" in an enterprise setting. You can have
the
>same result with different terminology. Your choice.

I would disagree that you have the same result with the different
terminology and I've been successful in enterprise settings and in NYC,
where I used to live.
 
> I don't see many technologists or business people avoiding their
domain
> specific terminology.

>I try to remind people not to do it, perhaps way too often, on this
list.
>Many of my presentations to clients start with a slide of an incredibly
>dense and completely buzzword/jargon laden sentence, summing up a
project,
>etc. I leave it up there for a while, without commentary. Pretty soon
people
>begin to giggle. The ice is broken. Very few addicts, after that, have
the
>nerve to slip back into jargon :-)

I agree that there are plenty of presenters who use buzzwords/jargon,
but that is not what I'm advocating. It is not about jargon, it is about


>That's not dumbing down. It's far more difficult to communicate in
plain
>English than in techno-babble. The point is for them to "easily relate
to
>it" not for us to show off, or be super definitive.

You keep saying "jargon" and "techno-babble" as if that is what I'm
suggesting, but I never used those words nor would I suggest that is
what we should do. What was once a technology term can quickly become
part of our language and can be used be all; enriching our language not
adding meaningless jargon. As long as we spend our time replacing terms
like "contextual inquiry" is just like interviews, the we are in
trouble. I'm sure in the early days (before my time) there were plenty
of people who thought the phrase "usability testing" was jargon, but now
it is a meaningful phrase that seldom requires length explanations.

--kipp


-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org] On Behalf
Of Listera
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2002 3:36 PM
To: 'sigia-l'
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] making the case for field research for innovation

"kipp lynch" wrote:

> Sometimes we seem to live in a field that is afraid of our own domain
> specific terminology.

I'm, in general, against any foisting of domain-specific jargon upon
unsuspecting bystanders.

> "ethnographic research", though that last term is often used
incorrectly to
> mean any kind of field research.

I assure you, at least in the jungles of New York City, you won't get
very
far with "ethnographic research" in an enterprise setting. You can have
the
same result with different terminology. Your choice.
 
> I don't see many technologists or business people avoiding their
domain
> specific terminology.

I try to remind people not to do it, perhaps way too often, on this
list.
Many of my presentations to clients start with a slide of an incredibly
dense and completely buzzword/jargon laden sentence, summing up a
project,
etc. I leave it up there for a while, without commentary. Pretty soon
people
begin to giggle. The ice is broken. Very few addicts, after that, have
the
nerve to slip back into jargon :-)

> 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.

That's not dumbing down. It's far more difficult to communicate in plain
English than in techno-babble. The point is for them to "easily relate
to
it" not for us to show off, or be super definitive.

> This doesn't mean we should use obscure references or pretentious
> nonsense, nor does it mean that we shouldn't speak the users'
language.

On that note of agreement... :-)

Best,

Ziya


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