Ethnography: Observing and analyzing activities in situ

Goals

• Learn about users and tasks in their natural context
• Obtain a rich and concrete portrayal of the work situation

Properties

• Actual task(s)
• Actual context (including time and location)
• Observation has minimal impact on how task is completed

The rich context provided by ethnographic methods presents a challenge to designers, who must obtain generalizable principles for interface design.

Variants

These are adapted from Usability Testing and Research by C. M. Barnum.

• User shadowing
• Questioning users during work
• Task debriefing
• Think-aloud
• Critical incident walkthrough
• Role play for user
• Cued recall from videotape

Items for discussion

• How does this observation differ from usability tests?
• How does the validity of observation contrast with indirect methods?
• What are some difficulties in observing work in context?

Here's an article discussing the role of ethnography in the design process. Among other things, this paper addresses the challenge of abstracting principles that are useful for designers. Their approach is mostly useful for CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) applications.