Ethnography 101: The Power of Observation

Posted by Chris Flanagan on May 2, 2007

Although yesterday's session at the Providence Business Expo with design consultance Continuum didn't explicitly cover it, ethnography - the process of observing and recording subjects in the field – is a crucial method of research in user-centered design. Our own Jeff Drury came across a super primer about ethnography here. Although written with the designer in mind, the report applies to anyone involved in the innovation process.

From the paper– “If you want to understand what motivates a guy to pick up skateboarding, you could bring him into a sterile laboratory and interrogate him… or you could spend a week in a skatepark observing him interacting with his friends, practicing new skills and having fun. Ethnography is observing people’s behavior in their own environments so you can get a holistic understanding of their world—one that you can intuit on a deeply personal level.”— LiAnne Yu, cultural anthropologist

Observation is not the only research method people used to capture deep customer insight. I like this image from Dominic Basulto's old blog which puts the entire spectrum into perspective:

The image reflects a great blog entry by Patti Sebyold from last year.

Patti writes, "As I’ve been researching innovative companies that are taking an “outside in” approach, I’ve found a number that have done a great job of ethnography--really walking in their customers’ shoes. When it’s done well, this ethnography isn’t something that’s done by a market research organization. It’s something that product developers and designers and product managers and marketing executives and e-business executives get personally engaged in. You don’t do it once. You do it continuously. "

Patti's book is Outside Innovation. It's very good. If you want to learn how other companies apply user-centered design principles to the innovation process, you won't find a better book.