Ethnography has become an essential tool in Product Design Research. This session will present the many ways that ethnographic research can contribute to a better design process.

1. Ethnography and Product Design
William O. Beeman
Department of Anthropology
University of Minnesota

2. The Big Green Button
Was the result of ethnographic research by anthropologist Lucy Suchman

3. Design Anthropology
• Design Anthropology has a forty-
year history
• Ph.D. Anthropologist Lucy
Suchman at Xerox PARC did her
doctoral dissertation on the
human-machine interface with
the Xerox Machine

4. Suchman’s
ethnographic analysis
of how people used
the Xerox machine
resulted in a complete
re-design of the
machine. The “big
green button” one
now sees on all
copiers was the result
of her research.

5. Lucy Suchman

6. The “user” as central to design
• "The user" is a central trope for designers,
• identifying and meeting "the user's" needs
and wants is the central mission of designers.

7. “Users’” needs and wants are elusive
• Of course, this is never a
straightforward process.
• Consumers have complex,
multiple needs, which
they are not always able
to articulate.
• Also, designers may
create new product ideas
that satisfy needs
consumers did not know
they had.
•

8. The popularity of Post-it notes is an
example of an unanticipated need

9. How Ethnography Helps
• Ethnography provides
the means to
understand the
unstated needs and
desires of users
• It tells the designer not
what people SAY they
want or need, but what
they REALLY want or
need.
•

10. House of Quality
Need for Ethnographic Input

11. Kano Model
Need for
Ethnographic
Input

13. Ethnography is data based
• Often people contrast quantitative methods with
qualitative methods by saying that quantitative
methods yield data and qualitative methods yield
descriptions or narrative.
• However, ethnography yields enormous amounts
of highly useful data that cannot be obtained in
any other way.
• The challenge is knowing how to collect data
effectively and how to interpret it to yield
information useful to the design process.

14. Assumptions of Ethnography
• It assumes holism—that the world of the user
is an integrated whole
• It assumes that users interact dynamically
with their environment
• It differentiates users according to multiple
social dimensions and multiple social
situations
• It assumes change in desires and attitudes
over time.

15. Investigating whole worlds--Empathy
• Ethnographers embed
themselves in the worlds
of the people they study
in order to obtain an
“inside view” of that
world--empathy
• “Empathy” with users is a
popular goal in the design
world, but one can’t
achieve empathy without
deep immersion in the
lives of users
•

16. Direct Ethnographic Experience
• Nothing substitutes for
direct ethnographic
experience with users.
• Attempts to develop
“empathy” through
mediated information,
such as social media,
questionnaires or
directed interviews in
unnatural surroundings
will fail to properly assess
user needs and desires.
•
… I’ve torn up the questionnaire but
am using the lovely pen you sent me.

17. Participant Observation
• Participant—The
researcher enters
the life-world of the
group or community
he or she is studying
• Observation—The
research records as
complete a record of
his or her experience
as possible.
The ethnographer
Where is the ethnographer?

18. Progress in Ethnography
• Ethnographic research starts with the most
general observations possible. One is a “naïve
observer”
• Gradually observations focus on specific patterns
observed in the life-world of the community and
are recorded as data
• This focus yields “hypotheses” that can be
verified and tested using the data collected
• Leading to insights about user needs and desires
that can be incorporated into the design process

19. Other ethnographic data
• Video recording
• Photographic records
• Mapping-space and
activities
• Informal interviewing
• Inventories
• Diaries
• Shadowing
• Storytelling
• Autobiography
• Biography
•

20. Findordrawapictureofthisperson
Biography
Nam
eAge
Gende
r
Family
Living
Context
Wor
k
Pla
y
Whoarethey? Wherearethey?
Notedownyourassumptions
Relatingandconnections
Connections
Who is this person connected
to? How?
(Include people/organisations
they know and don’t know)
Objects
What physical and digital
objects is this person
connected to?
How, where and when?
Skills
How does this person learn?
What shapes this?
What skills and knowledge
does the person have?
Habits
What activities are usual or
habitual for this person?
What would be novel
for them?
Matteringandvalues
Pleasure
How does this person
enjoy themselves?
(Not just special occasions
but everyday pleasures)
Personalobject
Pick one personal object that
has meaning for this person
and discuss what it means to
them and why
Mentalmodels
Thoughts
What does this person
think or believe about the
world around them?
Selfperception
How does this person
think about their
involvement in change?
What shapes this?
StoryworldUsethistohelpyoudescribetheuserandtheirworld
Waysofdoingthings
Source: Kimbell and Julier. 2012.The Social Design Methods Menu
Ethnographic Data Check list after Lucy Kimbell

21. Bauer Hockey—Finding users’ language

22. Christina Wasson—E-Lab
• E-Lab is now incorporated into Sapient, which
has a Minneapolis branch
• E-Lab did a study for Steelcase on office
furniture.
• First an E-Lab team did an extensive
ethnographic study of workers’ use of space.
They lived with the workers, interviewed
them, took pictures and videos

23. Steelcase Design Results
• Workers used spaces in many ways designers had never
intended and for multiple purposes.
• To give just one example, hallways and other "in
between" spaces turned out to be highly significant
sites of work interactions.
• This finding had far-reaching design implications for
Steelcase. It led the company to focus more on
products that could be placed in such "in between“
spaces to facilitate employees' interactions.
• Such products ranged from chairs to whiteboards. This
finding has become institutionalized at Steelcase and is
almost taken for granted today. (Wasson 2000)

24. Steelcase WorkCafé

25. Service Design--UPS vs. Fedex and
Small Business
• Fedex was losing market for small business to UPS
• Advertising, price control, incentives didn’t work
• Ethnographers went to small businesses and spent time
with the owners and employees, logged shipments and
were on hand to interview employees for every
interaction with delivery persons.
• UPS was seen as integrated into small business as part
of the business “family,” whereas Fedex was seen as
external, corporate, snobbish and in a hurry.

26. Ethnographic Praxis in Industry
Conference (EPIC) 2016
Minneapolis
29 August—1 September 2016
UMN Department of Anthropology
Carlson School of Management
epicpeople.org