[Sigia-l] Ethnographic research?

[Stew Dean]

At 17:10 09/02/2004, Arthur Fink wrote:
>Most of us tend to test/refine our designs in lab settings.
>
>A friend of mine with a strong background in anthropological ethnographic 
>research asked me if these disciplines are ever used in interaction design 
>projects ... either in the US or abroad (perhaps at places like Philips 
>Design).  Now she's got me interested as well.
>
>So ... any knowledge of or thoughts about this?
>
>
>Arthur Fink

Hi Arthur,

The in lab vs in their environment is one that's quite old but subjective 
in my view.   I have used both in the past. The Lab environment has the 
advantage it's easy to set up, it takes less time and via the use of a one 
way mirror can get team members and clients into to see the users talk 
through aspects of the current problem.

On the other hand if you have total buy in and have a good time budget then 
you can learn much from one to one interviews in the users environment. 
 From a psychology point of view people are more likely to remember vital 
things if they are going through a task in the environment they are used to 
doing it - you can also see the user do things they just take for granted 
but can, in it's self, be very important.

So which do you use?  Well interviewing doesn't need to happen in a lab. I 
have run usability research seasons (I try to do more research than 
testing) and it does always lead to good information. For example if you 
have a video of 3 out of eight users having to put on their reading glasses 
before starting to use a computer it's a good case against some visual 
designers lust for small type sizes.  It's even better if the designer is 
on the other side of a mirror when it happens.

To use a term that applies to all user expericence projects, 'it depends'. 
If you're doing a very task based project that is not in a purely office 
environment than a Ethongraphic approach may be the best. But if it's a 
marketing/product  site (as most projects I do have been) the advantage of 
team/client buy in will make a big different to the final result.

Cheers

Stewart Dean







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Stew Dean
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