Notes on Ethnography and Design

CSE 510 -- Winter 1999


These notes are based primarily on the paper "Ethnographic Field Methods and Their Relation to Design" by Blomberg et al.

Ethnography


Guiding Principles of Ethnography

  1. Natural Setting
    "To learn about a world you don't understand you must encounter it first hand"
  2. Holism
    "Behaviors can only be understood in the everyday context in which they occur."
  3. Descriptive
    Descriptive vs. prescriptive approaches -- ethnography is descriptive (Programming language example: building a object-oriented UI in Smalltalk by modifying an existing one)
  4. Member's point-of-view
    Get an "insider's" look (see illustrations in paper for worker's vs researcher's point-of-view regarding a typical office work setting)

Observation 1


Observation 2


Recording Media/Techniques


Interviews


Traditional Approaches

(see also McGrath paper)

Contrasts Between Traditional and Ethnographic Approaches


Issues