The research may be conducted as part of a team so that a larger number of users can be observed and therefore gaining a greater insight quickly. This observation method is a good way for researchers to see how users go about their day first hand and identify any disconnections of when the user tells the researcher one thing but actually interacts in another way.
Contextual interviews are where the researcher will interact with users while observing them going about their everyday tasks.
The interviews will be held in a natural environment, so as not to feel too formal. The researcher will observe the user going about their everyday tasks and ask questions to gain insight. The analysis of the findings will vary depending on the method that has been used to gather the insights. In both cases though, the research was to obtain an in-depth view of the users and how they go about completing tasks which are under review. Researchers will look for patterns and themes from the data.
They will look for the challenges and barriers that users encountered and how this effected different users. One of the methods used to analyse the data is the use of an affinity diagram.
This method allows you to take all the observations from the research and group them together so that you can begin looking for patterns. Researchers will put all their key points onto Post-It notes and then categorise these into groups which relate to the same topic.
Ethnographic studies are a good way to really understand your users and the challenges they may face while going about their everyday lives. The research will give you insights to your users that you may not have seen if they were in a lab being asked to complete a task.
However, Ethnographic studies can be costly and time-consuming, so making sure that you get the research method right is crucial to making sure that you are getting the research questions answered. Having conducted a study, you then need to present your findings back in an informative and meaningful way that will allow teams to use the information to make informed changes, making sure that your own opinions have not come into the findings.
Usability testing is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users. Users are asked to complete tasks, typically while they are being observed by a researcher, to see where they encounter problems and experience confusion.
If more people encounter similar problems, recommendations will be made to overcome these usability issues. User-centred design is a process or set of tools used to design a service which focuses on what users need at the very beginning and continues throughout development until launch. Typically services are designed from a technical and business perspective, with consideration for users added in later. Instead, User-centred design ensures the service focuses on what users need before balancing this with the technical and business requirements.
Wireframing is a way to design a website service at the structural level. A wireframe is commonly used to lay out content and functionality on a page which takes into account user needs and user journeys.
Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure of a page before visual design and content is added. Website prototypes are interactive demos of a website. These are often used to gather feedback from project stakeholders early in the project lifecycle, before the project goes into final development.
Unlike traditional market researchers, who use highly targeted questions to extract information from customers, corporate ethnographers observe and listen in a nondirected way. Their method may appear inefficient, but it can yield rich data about product use. Ethnography is the branch of anthropology that involves trying to understand how people live their lives. Unlike traditional market researchers, who ask specific, highly practical questions, anthropological researchers visit consumers in their homes or offices to observe and listen in a nondirected way.
While this observational method may appear inefficient, it enlightens us about the context in which customers would use a new product and the meaning that product might hold in their lives. Ethnography at Intel initially focused on new markets. The company had provided products only for the workplace, but in managers wondered whether users at home would become a distinct market. Ethnographic research showed so much potential that Intel set up a business unit to concentrate on processors and platforms for home use.
Recently, Intel ethnographers have veered into strategic questions. Like many high-tech companies, Intel makes long-term bets on how markets will play out. Will television and PC technology converge? It is a useful approach for learning first-hand about the behavior and interactions of people within a particular context.
By becoming immersed in a social environment, you may have access to more authentic information and spontaneously observe dynamics that you could not have found out about simply by asking. Ethnography is also an open and flexible method.
Rather than aiming to verify a general theory or test a hypothesis , it aims to offer a rich narrative account of a specific culture, allowing you to explore many different aspects of the group and setting. Ethnography is a time-consuming method. In order to embed yourself in the setting and gather enough observations to build up a representative picture, you can expect to spend at least a few weeks, but more likely several months.
This long-term immersion can be challenging, and requires careful planning. Ethnographic research can run the risk of researcher bias. Writing an ethnography involves subjective interpretation, and it can be difficult to maintain the necessary distance to analyze a group that you are embedded in. There are often also ethical considerations to take into account: for example, about how your role is disclosed to members of the group, or about observing and reporting sensitive information.
Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. The setting of your ethnography—the environment in which you will observe your chosen community in action—may be open or closed. An open or public setting is one with no formal barriers to entry. For example, you might consider a community of people living in a certain neighborhood, or the fans of a particular baseball team.
A closed or private setting is harder to access. This may be for example a business, a school, or a cult. Most ethnography is overt. In an overt approach, the ethnographer openly states their intentions and acknowledges their role as a researcher to the members of the group being studied. Sometimes ethnography can be covert. This means that the researcher does not tell participants about their research, and comes up with some other pretense for being there.
Different levels of immersion in the community may be appropriate in different contexts. The ethnographer may be a more active or passive participant depending on the demands of their research and the nature of the setting. An active role involves trying to fully integrate, carrying out tasks and participating in activities like any other member of the community. While ethnographers usually have a preference, they also have to be flexible about their level of participation.
For example, access to the community might depend upon engaging in certain activities, or there might be certain practices in which outsiders cannot participate.
Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. An important consideration for ethnographers is the question of access.
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