Design Ethnography

Design and Technology
Brian Lonranger
21/02/14


The top down approach of looking at a design problem is popular nowadays as it has a way of understanding minute problems that compound over the course of a design process. These compounded problems are often those which cause a product to fail. It is therefore important to get to the root issues early and have a deeper look.

Participant observation involves living in the culture for a long period, .5 to 2 years, to understand fully who you are designing for. Ford used a suit that restricted movement and vision to design an old person friendly car - it turned out to be one of the most successful car designs for that particular user. Observing someone with a clipboard (being an outsider) will not be natural and the person won't act normally... 

Brian claimed elderly people don't want to learn new systems, they just want to enjoy old age and the way things are. In my experience this is in fact the opposite: my Granny loves new technology and goes to computer classes and my Grandpa just bought a new laptop for Christmas! 

Grounded theory is the idea of going into the field with limited knowledge. Don't form research questions to start with, but do a reccy of the field with no preconceptions and then come up with questions after. A useful interview technique is having 20 questions you want answered. Know what you are actually asking, what you actually want to find out. Generalise some questions - open and closed. Open = walk me through your day. Closed = do you like the pendant. Some examples of good open questions are: What are the challenges you face in the day? What would you change about your day? Check off the 20 questions by just letting them talk - maybe ask only 3 very open ended questions. Then at the end can ask any specifics if one of the 20 haven't been asked yet.

Be participant. If you want to design fishing gear for Alaskan Crab Fisherman then go and become an Alaskan Fisherman... Method of note taking: What you're doing, where, who, when. Half put nothing but observations - facts. Opposite side, anything that is an interpretation (qualitative) - feelings, what others may be feeling. Flesh out notes after the interview - very soon after for the best recollection.