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Tell Me Why You Did That: Learning “Ethnography” from the Design Studio
Abstract
This paper questions the role and form of ethnography in the studio setting through a comparative analysis of interviews with service and brand designers, and the promotional rhetoric of the studio organizations in which they work. It proposes that the way in which designers practice ‘ethnography’ consists of an adapted and hybrid methodological approach based not on theoretically informed data collection, analysis and interpretation, but instead of an assemblage of embodied research approaches. The ways in which designers substitute proxy audience membership, performance and praxiography for traditional ethnographic methods in their creative work and their acts of negotiation between the structural expectations of the studio organization and their own practice of cultural production are considered.
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The term 'cultural intermediaries' is good to think with. It has been a productive device for examining the producers of symbolic value in various industries, commodity chains and urban spaces, highlighting such issues as the blurring of work and leisure, the conservatism of 'new' and 'creative' work, and the material practices involved in the promotion of consumption (e.g.
This paper explores challenges and potentials for innovation and co-creation within an increasingly interconnected and digitalized world, and its affect on ethnographic practices within the field of design and business development. Our discussion is based on material from an interdisciplinary research and design project with a leading computer game developer, exploring opportunities of involving online gaming communities in innovation processes and product development. Based on our case, we argue that in a world with increasingly blurred boundaries between physical, digital and hybrid contexts, as well as design, production and use, we might need to rethink the role of ethnography within user centred design and business development. Here the challenge is less about “getting closer” to user needs and real-life contexts, through familiarization, mediation, and facilitation, and more about creating a critical theoretically informed distance from which to perceive and reflect upon complex interconnections between people, technology, business and design, as well as our roles as researchers and designers within these.
Here we consider design ethnography, and design fiction. We cast these two approaches, and the design endeavor itself, as forward-looking processes. Exploring the means by which design ethnography and design fiction derive their value reveals the potential for a mutually beneficial symbiosis. Our thesis argues that design ethnography can provide design fiction with the methods required to operationalize the practice in industry contexts. Meanwhile design fiction can provide design ethnographers a novel way of extending the temporal scope of the practice, thus deriving actionable insights that are applicable further into the future.
Political scientists have started to focus on ‘practice’ as the smallest unit of analysis. Following a broader turn in the social sciences, the practice focus provides multiple advantages, including better conceptualizations of short-term social change, getting closer to the everyday activities of those speaking, writing and doing politics, appropriate conceptualization of agency-structure dynamics, or forms of analysis resonating with other communities than scholarly ones. This contribution asks what the methodological implications of the practice turn are. It is argued that the practice focus does not only imply a certain ‘theory’ but also a certain methodology. I advance the term praxiography to speak about the forms of analysis produced by practice researchers. I discuss key guidelines of praxiographic research on two levels: first, general research strategies that provide empirical access points, second, guidelines for data collection in the frame of participant observation, expert interviews, and document analysis. I conclude in arguing that although praxiography is context driven, and hence requires to be tailored to the research problem, it is vital to reflect on the methodological repertoire of praxiographic research.
This paper discusses how the concept of experience goods could be integrated conceptually into innovation studies. Experience goods are distinguishable in that their value or utility cannot be determined until after they have been consumed. The concept encompasses an enormous variety of consumer goods whose value is determined largely or entirely by subjective and non-rational factors that are difficult to accommodate in the established framework of innovation theory. This theory has a strong historical orientation to manufactured goods and to technology producer goods. The paper provides some critical perspectives on the conceptual evolution of ‘value’ in innovation theory. It then introduces the experience goods dimension, demonstrating its potential for exploring how historical, social, cultural and economic factors combine in the construction of value-producing innovations. Drawing on the literature of marketing, consumer research, and cultural economics, various dimensions of experience as a factor in innovation are mapped onto Schumpeter’s innovation typology. The paper concludes by discussing some of the implications for future research.
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/DESI_a_00158
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the methodological practice of shadowing and its implications for ethnographic fieldwork. Furthermore, the paper challenges the label of “shadowing” and suggests a new label of “spect‐acting.”
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based in a feminist and interpretive‐qualitative approach to methods, and uses the author's experience with shadowing as a case study. The author argues that fieldwork is always intersubjective and as such, the research site emerges out of the co‐construction of the relationship between researcher and participant.
Findings
The author argues that reflexivity is a required but neglected aspect of shadowing, and that spect‐acting as a new term would require the researcher to take reflexivity more seriously, thereby opening up emancipatory possibilities in the field.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are based on a limited time span of shadowing.
Originality/value
The paper is original in that it imports “spect‐acting” from performance studies into the organizational methods lexicon. The value of the paper is that it provides reflection and discussion of one‐on‐one ethnography, which is a relatively underutilized method in research on organizations and management (but beginning to grow in popularity).
The term design thinking has gained attention over the past decade in a wide range of contexts beyond the traditional preoccupations of designers. The main idea is that the ways professional designers problem-solve is of value to firms trying to innovate and to societies trying to make change happen. This paper reviews the origins of the term design thinking in research about designers and its adoption by management educators and consultancies within a dynamic, global mediatized economy. Three main accounts are identified: design thinking as a cognitive style, as a general theory of design, and as a resource for organizations. The paper argues there are several issues that undermine the claims made for design thinking. The first is how many of these accounts rely on a dualism between thinking and knowing, and acting in the world. Second, a generalized design thinking ignores the diversity of designers' practices and institutions which are historically situated. The third is how design thinking rests on theories of design that privilege the designer as the main agent in designing. Instead the paper proposes that attending to the situated, embodied routines of designers and others offers a useful way to rethink design thinking.
Doing Research in Design presents new ways of thinking about the relationship between design and research by positioning design as a social as well as a material practice. This approach emphasises the social consequences of design decisions as well as the importance of the efficient functioning of a design.
Doing Research in Design argues that design promotes social change and that, in order to understand that change, designers must turn to social science research methods. The book outlines the relationships between thinking and doing in design - and makes explicit links between design, research, philosophy and sociology - and then examines four central social research methodologies in practice.
The aim of Doing Research in Design is to provide anyone involved in the field of design with the knowledge and understanding of the best methods to plan and conduct their research.
What makes a product iconic? How did IKEA really conquer the home-furnishings market from Sweden to China? Why do design innovators spend more time observing consumers than making new things? Design Anthropology charts the radical turn to ‘the user’ that has transformed our contemporary object culture. Featuring leading design thinkers, Design Anthropology offers a provocative insight into how different groups, from South London urbanites to Australian aborigines, use designed objects to make sense of their everyday lives. As design corporations ‘go native’ they now look to us – our homes, our spiritual worlds and our intimate rituals, for their inspiration. Design Anthropology is a must-have read for everyone in design, creative industries, sociology, anthropology, marketing and cultural studies – and for anyone interested in what is really at stake in our material world.
"These timely, thoughtful and well-written essays are essential reading as we explore the changing tasks of design in these new times"
John Thackara, Doors of Perception
"Alison Clarke's anthology is a must-read for anyone interested in the growing links between design and anthropology. Featuring essays by leading writers working at the intersection of both fields, it is a well-constructed foray into a world where material culture meets design research, where practice and theory intertwine. As designers add social science theory to their box of tricks and theorists seek relevance and impact for their ideas, Design Anthropology is where it all comes together."
Jeremy Myerson, Director and Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design, Royal College of Art
When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension of the user. It creates meaning and a new language. Design-Inspired Innovation takes a unique look at the intersection between design and innovation, and explores the novel ways in which designers are contributing to the development of products and services. The book’s scope is international, with emphasis on design activities in Boston, England, Sweden, and Milan. Through a rich variety of cases and cultural prisms, the book extends the traditional design viewpoint and stretches the context of industrial design to question - and answer - what design is really all about. It gives readers tools for inspiration, and shows how design can change language and even create human possibilities. © 2006 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.
As the title indicates, this chapter is a primer on practices. It begins by discussing practice theory generally but mostly presents my own ideas. The topics addressed are practices, activities, and social phenomena, with special attention to temporality and the unfolding of practices. The chapter concludes with comments about conducting research on practices. My goal is to provide practice theoretical stimulation to readers interested in practice-based education and research.
Over the last decade, ethnographic studies of the creative industries have emerged as a thriving area of interdisciplinary research. Yet studies dealing with the micro-processes of relations between management and creativity are still relatively rare. Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Japanese animation industry, this article offers a detailed analysis of workplace relations between entry-level manager, or ‘production operators’, and two classes of key creative workers, animators and directors, at the shop-floor level. Elaborating analytical concepts of emotional labour and creative hierarchy, it shows how directors’ and animators’ capacity to create and manipulate animation drawings routinely subordinate the production operators in the workplace hierarchy. It argues that the structure of domination in commercial cultural production between management and creativity is more multi-dimensional and contingent than a one-sided subordination of artists by managers.
Ed Nicholas Mays, Catherine Pope BMJ Publishing Group, pounds sterling10.95, pp 79 ISBN 0 7279 1013 2Why does evidence from meticulous trials have so little impact on clinical practice? How do the ways in which clinical teams coordinate their work affect patients' outcomes? Why do many people accept advice on “healthy living” but not put it into practice? These and many similar questions relate to the perplexing gaps between research evidence and its effective use, between health services and outcomes, and between personal knowledge and behaviour. The two methods that dominate medical research—measurement and experiment—offer the best means of evaluating specific interventions, but cannot deal with the above questions.Current over reliance on measuring leaves large areas of inquiry either poorly researched with inappropriate methods or ignored; it is as restrictive as the use of only two drugs for a range of conditions that require the selective use of a dozen remedies.Qualitative Research in Health Care, a collection of papers first published in the BMJ, gives a concise introduction to the discriminating use of a wider range of methods. It discusses the main uses, benefits, and pitfalls of social science methods: systematic observation; in depth interviews; focus groups; consensus methods; and case studies which explore, explain, or describe complex examples of actual practice. All these methods can analyse the ambiguous, contradictory responses which inevitably emerge when research moves beyond superficial inquiry. The methods can prepare for later quantitative work, or supplement it, or be used independently.The editors discuss questions integral to every research method, such as how rigorous and representative the work is, how valid, how reliable, and how impartial. They show that qualitative and quantitative methods broadly overlap and complement one another. The crucial question is not “What is the best research method?” but “What is the best method for answering this question?” For anyone who is unconvinced of the value of “soft” research, the appendix debates the relative merits of qualitative and quantitative work.Only five methods are covered, and little is said about the importance of theory. However, this reader friendly book contains much information of value to health care practitioners, managers, and researchers, and to anyone who is the subject of research or audit, or who uses (or ignores) research evidence. If members of ethics, funding, and editorial committees, who assess research protocols and reports, noted the book's themes and allowed more resources and journal space for qualitative research, then knowledge about health care could be considerably enriched.—PRISCILLA ALDERSON, senior research officer, Institute of Education, University of London
In recent years, cultural work has engaged the interest of scholars from a broad range of social science and humanities disciplines. The debate in this ‘turn to cultural work’ has largely been based around evaluating its advantages and disadvantages: its freedoms and its constraints, its informal but precarious nature, the inequalities within its global workforce, and the blurring of work–life boundaries leading to ‘self-exploitation’. While academic critics have persuasively challenged more optimistic accounts of ‘converged’ worlds of creative production, the critical debate on cultural work has itself leant heavily towards suggesting a profoundly new confluence of forces and effects. Theorizing Cultural Work instead views cultural work through a specifically historicized and temporal lens, to ask: what novelty can we actually attach to current conditions, and precisely what relation does cultural work have to social precedent? The contributors to this volume also explore current transformations and future(s) of work within the cultural and creative industries as they move into an uncertain future. This book challenges more affirmative and proselytising industry and academic perspectives, and the pervasive cult of novelty that surrounds them, to locate cultural work as an historically and geographically situated process. It will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, cultural studies, human geography, urban studies and industrial relations, as well as management and business studies, cultural and economic policy and development, government and planning. © 2013 selection and editorial material Mark Banks, Rosalind Gill and Stephanie Taylor; individual chapters, the contributors.
Since the 90's, one of ethnography's values has been about the reduction in the risk of developing new products and services by providing contextual information about people's lives. This model is breaking down. Ethnography can continue to provide value in the new environment by enabling the corporation to be agile. We need to: (1) identify flux in social-technological fabric; (2) engage in the characterization of the business ecosystems to understand order; and (3) be a catalyst with rapid deep dives. Together we call it a FOC approach (flux, order, catalyst).
Greater attention in the research community has been focused on expanding participation of ethnic minorities in behavioral, biomedical, and marketing research. This article focuses on multicultural issues in qualitative research, with particular attention to the focus-group method, because it represents one of the most commonly used forms of qualitative research, especially in marketing research. The importance and appreciation of cultural differences and the recognition of common versus specific cultural characteristics is discussed. Culturally informed researchers should tailor their information-gathering efforts to match the client's cultural expectations. Researchers also need to be aware of possible value conflicts and ethnic differences with respect to specific norms, attitudes, and cultural expectations. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
How do common household items such as basic plastic house wares or high-tech digital cameras transform our daily lives? The Design of Everyday Life considers this question in detail, from the design of products through to their use in the home. Drawing on interviews with consumers themselves, the authors look at how everyday objects, ranging from screwdrivers to photo management software, are used on a practical level. Closely investigating the design, production and use of mass-market goods, the authors offer new interpretations of how consumers’ needs are met and manufactured. They examine the dynamic interaction of products with everyday practices.
The Design of Everyday Life presents a pathbreaking analysis of the sociology of objects, illuminating the connections between design and consumption.
This article works out the main characteristics of `practice theory', a type of social theory which has been sketched by such authors as Bourdieu, Giddens, Taylor, late Foucault and others. Practice theory is presented as a conceptual alternative to other forms of social and cultural theory, above all to culturalist mentalism, textualism and intersubjectivism. The article shows how practice theory and the three other cultural-theoretical vocabularies differ in their localization of the social and in their conceptualization of the body, mind, things, knowledge, discourse, structure/process and the agent.
“Only middle-class academics could blithely assume that all the world is a text,” writes one of performance studies' leading figures. Conquergood argues for a hybrid discipline that celebrates experience and commingles the analytic and the artistic.
This article considers the potential of a revival of interest in theories of practice for the study of consumption. It presents an abridged account of the basic precepts of a theory of practice and extracts some broad principles for its application to the analysis of final consumption. The basic assumption is that consumption occurs as items are appropriated in the course of engaging in particular practices and that being a competent practitioner requires appropriation of the requisite services, possession of appropriate tools, and devotion of a suitable level of attention to the conduct of the practice. Such a view stresses the routine, collective and conventional nature of much consumption but also emphasizes that practices are internally differentiated and dynamic. Distinctive features of the account include its understanding of the way wants emanate from practices, of the processes whereby practices emerge, develop and change, of the consequences of extensive personal involvements in many practices, and of the manner of recruitment to practices. The article concludes with discussion of some theoretical, substantive and methodological implications.
Members of the design profession help develop new products and services of many kinds, and they are centrally concerned with satisfying the needs of users of their products. Ethnography appeals to designers because it provides a window onto the ways consumers interact with products in their everyday lives. The paper provides an overview of this extension of applied anthropology to a new domain. It traces how ethnography became known to designers and the transmission of particular research traditions that have shaped the practice of "ethnography" in the design field. Ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, and activity theory have been prominent theoretical influences. Most data-gathering methods are characterized by the use of videotape. As an example, I describe the research practices of one design firm, formerly known as E-Lab LLC, now part of Sapient Corporation.
Practice' in a sociological sense refers to routinised behaviours that consist of several elements, interconnected to one another. To paraphrase Reckwitz, these include forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, artefacts and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge. Using ethnographic and interview data that focuses on teenagers' use of iPods, this presentation maps out the sociality of practice. Through this analysis, I argue for an approach to design that does not focus on individual users and objects, but for a complex appreciation of the networks of artefacts and actions that are contigent upon one another within respective fields of practice. Thus it is perhaps most productive for the designer to look at the norms and 'rules' of these fields, but also at their edges and overlaps with other fields.
As design for sustainability extends beyond its origins in engineering, and therefore production, increasing attention has been put on the roles technologies and designed artifacts play in mitigating or exacerbating consumption-related impacts. However, there is a prevalence of efforts in user-centered and behavior-based design lacking the systemic perspectives necessary to appropriately address the social nature of consumption. In response, interest has grown for applying theories of social practice to design processes in order to address the socio-technical dynamics behind consumption. This paper introduces a methodology for ‘practice-oriented design’ using collaborative processes of discursive analysis and experimentation in everyday life. A pilot study conducted for the EU Living Lab project, using a case on bathing, demonstrates early exploration work.
Design thinking is the core creative process for any designer; this book explores and explains this apparently mysterious “design ability.”
Focusing on what designers do when they design, Design Thinking is structured around a series of in-depth case studies of outstanding and expert designers, interwoven with overviews and analyses. The range covered reflects the breadth of design, from hardware and software design to architecture and Formula One. The book offers new insights into and understanding of design thinking, based on evidence from observation and investigation of design practice.
Design Thinking is the distillation of the work of one of design’s most influential scholars. Nigel Cross goes to the heart of what it means to think and work as a designer. The book is an ideal guide for anyone who wants to be a designer or to know how good designers work in the field of contemporary design.
In the last few years, “Design Thinking” has gained popularity – it is now seen as an exciting new paradigm for dealing with problems in sectors as far a field as IT, Business, Education and Medicine. This potential success challenges the design research community to provide unambiguous answers to two key questions: “What is the core of Design Thinking?” and “What could it bring to practitioners and organisations in other fields?”. We sketch a partial answer by considering the fundamental reasoning pattern behind design, and then looking at the core design practices of framing and frame creation. The paper ends with an exploration of the way in which these core design practices can be adopted for organisational problem solving and innovation.Highlights► Analysing design reasoning in terms of abduction. ► Presenting a framework for the description of design practices. ► Investigating the creation of new frames as a key design practice. ► Describing the different levels on which design (framing) practices can impact organisations.
Framed by the idea that ethnography is a trans-disciplinary praxis, this paper adopts Alan Barnard's framework of the theory as questions, assumptions, methods, and evidence (QAME) to compare how ethnographic praxis is approached across the domains of anthropology, marketing, and design. The companies Intel, Cheskin, and IDEO serve as exemplars for each domain, respectively. Through a content analysis of academic journals and popular media, the paper explores the discursive meanings of ethnography as a “boundary object” across many domains. The paper concludes with how Barnard's QAME framework can be used to make visible ethnography's multiple meanings so that practitioners can improve interdisciplinary collaborations within organizations and better articulate ethnography's value to business.