ethnographic methods don't make an ethnographer - ux australia 2016

Ethnographic methods don’t make an ethnographer

Experience Designer + ResearcherPhD Candidate (Anthropology + Sociology)

@michaelpalmyre

Michael Palmyre

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Academia Design

Designing the right thing

Designing the thing right

FIELD NOTES

FIELD NOTESFIELD

NOTES

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Hormel

Hired an anthropologist to understand how Spam ‘fits’ into peoples’ lives

SPAM

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Stripe Partners

What happened before What’s happening now Where things might go

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What are we actually doing?

Understanding or Delivering

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graphyEthnopeople, company, nation write, represent, study

Secondary ResearchGenerating ‘etic’ understandings from

books, missionaries, travellers

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Empirical ResearchGenerating ‘emic’ understandings through direct

experiencing and embodying of practice and culture

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3

ProduceInterpretLearnObservation, fieldwork,

photos, interviews, fieldnotes

Thesis, paper, documentary,

storytelling

Unpack, sense making, reflexivity, grounded

theory, analysis

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WhyWhat

EthnographyContextual inquiryInterviewUsability testing

Explicit knowledge - Fast cultureShort term relevance - Superficial insightsIncremental - TacticalSiloedInside-outBusiness-centred

Tacit, embodied knowledge - Slow cultureLong term relevance - Deep insights

Innovative - StrategicAgnostic

Outside-inHuman-centred

Rapid ethnography

Evaluate Generate

Design Research SpectrumUnderstand

Fast culture Slow culture

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fads

deep activity

surface activity

pop culture

explicit knowledge

value systems

deep influences

embodied knowledge

How I’ve used ethnographyExploring the place of witchcraft (grigri) as

part of Seychellois culture and identity

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Finding participantsSnowball sampling

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Getting ‘in’‘Inserting’ myself into local contexts

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On the groundObserving, learning and exploring

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On the groundObserving, learning and exploring

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On the groundObserving, learning and exploring

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Groan, moan

Grounded TheoryThe development and iteration of theory

grounded in ongoing observation and findings

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Find existing literature

Snowball sampling Epiphany!

Explore tangent

Findoverlooked area

Develop framework

Find gaps

Analyse + Iterate

Analyse + Iterate

Time.

Understanding takes timeThere’s no time for deep understandings when

we’re focused on producing a ‘thing’

Production of thing Production of knowledge

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Understand first

Witchcraft

Understand the context to understand the needs

HEALTH

teenage pregnancy

high risk abortion

dictatorial law

paternalistic health care

IDENTITY

colonialism

creolité

negritude

slavery

individual

community

CULTURE

resistance

socialism

capitalism

racial binaries

primordial

embodied knowledge,

nature vs nurture

ContextContext. Context context context.

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Complexity or Consumption

Millenials don’t care about privacy and they want everything now!

Actually, it really depends on the context and the individual. Blanket statements like this one misrepresent entire populations and give organisations empty findings that lead to bad decisions.

While familiarity with a privacy-reduced, have-it-now world may be more common among younger demographics, it is incorrect to say that this statement applies to all ‘young’ people. Some participants sought time to think before signing up, and for it to be face-to-face, as opposed to ‘instant’ and online, so they could interact and ask questions.

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Quote as evidence

Design Research

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‘Yeah, I’d probably use this’

Quote as narrative

Critical Ethnography

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‘ …older practitioners knew more… pure grigri… ’

Quote as narrative

‘ …older practitioners knew more… pure grigri… ’

Critical Ethnography

negritudeliminality

nostalgia

dilution

mimicry

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purity

TakeawaysAlways interpret what you collect

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‘…there is no insight in mere facts; you must interpret them.' - Sam Ladner -

‘What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.’

- Margaret Mead -

TakeawaysDon’t try to understand ‘why’ at the shallow

end of the research spectrum.

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‘Anyone can produce a new fact; the thing is to produce a new idea.’

- E.E. Evans-Pritchard -

TakeawaysStart with in-depth ethnography to

understand people first.

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‘Meaning is socially, historically, and rhetorically constructed.’ - Cliffort Geertz -

‘The only important thing about design is how it relates to people….we respond to that which has meaning’

- Victor Papanek -

Don’t try to understand ‘why’ at the shallow end of the research spectrum

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Always interpret what you collect

Start with in-depth ethnography to understand people first

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What we’re doing

Designing the right thing

Designing the thing right

What we claim to be doing

Designing the right thing

Designing the thing right

What we should be doing

Ethnographic megalith

Evidenced, innovative double diamonds,

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Thank you.Check out:

epicpeople.org

ethnographymatters.net

peepsforum.com

indiyoung.com

Practical Ethnography - Sam Ladner

The Interpretation of Cultures - Clifford Geertz

In Search of Respect - Philippe Bourgois

Body and Soul - Loïc Wacquant

Patterns of Culture - Ruth Benedict