This how-to guide covers the mechanics of data collection for applied qualitative research. It is appropriate for novice and experienced researchers alike. It can be used as both a training tool and a daily reference manual for field team members. Its question and answer format and modular design make it easy for readers to find information on a particular topic quickly. [Direct Download, via ]

Don Norman at IIT Design Research Conference 2010 from IIT Institute of Design

The research product gap – and two kinds of innovation: Donald Norman makes some good points in his talk at the design research conference this year. He already challenged the community with his provocative statements on design research (’Technology first, needs last’)  in an article in the Interactions Magazine (March/ April 2010). – I do agree with him in most of what he is saying: We design researchers need to bridge the gap between research and company product divisions (ie. marketing, engineering, etc.).  A common language is needed in order to accomplish results in real products which are based on our user insights.

It’s an elaborate speech, well structured. Nonetheless I would have expected Norman to talk more about solutions to this apparent problem than just to repeat and explain what is already known to be a problem. A similar debate is ongoing for years among anthropologists who want to make their field more applicable and to gain a wider public audience [1, 2, 3].

Ergonautek meets academia: Last week I followed the invitation of Mario Giudici, Daniel Hunziker (Human Centered Design, Basel) and Andy Polaine to hold a guest lecture at Fachhochschule Luzern/ Switzerland. For the seminar I met a group of well prepared and highly motivated design management students – all of them eager to take a deep dive into design research methodology.

ergonautek guest lecture at Fachhochschule Luzern

The topic was ‘un-design through service design’ – How might we nudge behaviours and develop new services that allow us to move beyond simple consumerism? During the seminar the students were asked to examine the products and consumption in their lives and “un-design” them using service design approaches in order to reduce or remove their negative environmental and ethical impacts on the world.

With my lecture on video as a method for design research I contributed to the method section of the seminar. With telling examples paired with theory and practical exercises I passed on the ergonautek knowledge to the students on using video for design research. Although the seminar was packed with practical hints and activities it seemed to be fun and interesting to all of the participants. For me it got especially exciting when the students presented their results from a tiny field study which they conducted at the end of the day. The video material from these studies highlighted the difficulties people can have while interacting with services. With this input on using video for design research the students got a powerful method at hand for their upcoming student’s projects. Wish you good luck for this, guys!

Analysing the field material and preparing short highlight clips

First I asked the participants to reflect on a r&d process as it most likely would take place in their company. In a second step the workshop participants were asked to make up a more ideal process. What methods for user research would they like to employ, how and at what stage of the process?

Participants sketch an imaginary and idealized r&d cycle.

It was a fun activity for most of the IxDA members yesterday I guess. Even though some participants seemed to be rather disenchanted with their particular company policy on user engagement ;) Check out the workshop results on the IxDA Munich page on LinkedIn.

To those interested in joining our group: Munich’s interaction designers meet up every six weeks for either a social gathering in a bar or beergarden or for a more formal presentation or workshop at IDEO/ Hochbrückenstraße 6. See the IxDA Munich website for the latest news and announcements.

What tools do we have at hand for engaging users?

I haven’t tried this application yet. I am afraid it would not help me much for my research. It basically does not allow one to take four recordings at the same time (video, photo, sound AND notes) since the iPhone does not support multi tasking. For my work practice it is extremely important to work with different types of media in parallel. As an example I am taking voice recordings as a back up for the video. Or I take pictures and voice recordings for soundslide. Here the app is probably of no help.

My second concern relates to the flow of research activities. One of the core functions of the applications is the possibility to annotate and share research material instantly. These functions appear to be a bit disruptive. During my research I often find technology disconnecting me from the people I study. I just can’t imagine to start typing on my iPhone while the informant is showing me around and inviting me to his everyday life activities: “Please wait a moment I need some time to send this picture off to my collegues…”

Such behaviour can be perceived as weapons of the weak. Workers oppose an inhuman working climate and try to resist external control. They sabotage the assembly line if it is dictating the work speed by inserting some tool into the gears. The whole production machinery then stops and generates a feeling of instant relief. By this behaviour the workers turn the power conditions upside down. They make sure that they are under control of the working conditions at last.

I also notice side activities by which the workers often seek distraction from their work routines in order to escape monotony. In his book ‘dignity at work’ Randy Hodson, an American sociologist, explains:

Such peripheral, meaningful activities are important strategies for holding back the boredom of too many hours spent on the same activity. Even the often inherently interesting tasks of professional employees can become boring when done to excess. The pursuit of independent meanings can thus be expected to be widespread across workplace.

During the interviews I often find my interview partners to be full of irony when they comment on their work practice. The American cultural anthropologist Gabriel Torres examined this phenomena further in his study among Mexican tomato workers. These workers often pair irony with little subversive acts of destruction. He interprets this irony under a functionalist perspective explaining it as a valve for anger and poor working conditions on the tomato farms.

What is the use of a gun in a crane?

I share this view. Irony, same as any kind of humour,  helps people bearing rigid working conditions. Another aspect is creativity, simple solutions in order to ameliorate working conditions instantly. Emblematic is a study of rail crane workers I conducted some time ago. These workers sit high up in a glass cabin and what is indispensible for them is a 360° view in order to place containers on their exact position. One crane worker I was interviewing had a basic problem with the view through the glass windows of his cabin. There was simply no chance to clean the windows from outside. All his anger was directed towards the pigeons and the leftovers from their excrements. A simple air gun was the solution to his problem. Simple, fast, effective he explained in the interview and I admit this was unexpected.

View from the glass cabin in a container crane

References

Hodson, Randy, 2001, Dignity at Work, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 46

Torres, Gabriel, 1997, The Force of Irony. Power in the everyday Life of Mexican Tomato Workers, Oxford, Berg, pp. 168-192

The Weekly Qualitative Report issue from March 22 contains a link to a list of resources on ethnography and design. After a quick review it seems that it dates back to 2006  – and yet it might be useful for teaching, trainings and daily work.

This year’s theme is ‘Participation – the Challenge’  and on the PDC-website we read why:

Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. The theme calls us to explore the current and emerging equivalents to the pioneering Participatory Design focus on involving people in the introduction of technology into their work. This PDC will take up the challenge of extending the design approaches and understandings of participation that informed the first 20 years of Participatory Design towards those that were needed to enable the field to continue to generate major innovations in design in the future.

The call for research papers, workshops and tutorials is open until May 3 2010.

User Research: Der Informant wird gebeten seine Gedanken in einer Skizze festzuhalten.

User Research (dt. Anwender- oder Nutzerforschung) bezeichnet die Erhebung von Wissen über Menschen in ihrer Eigenschaft als Nutzer oder Anwender von Produkten und Dienstleistungen. User Research ist angewandte Forschung mit dem weiterführenden Ziel der Neuentwicklung von Produkten und Dienstleistungen oder der Verbesserung bestehender auf Basis der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse… [Weiterlesen im UCD-Glossar].

Die Begriffsbestimmungen sind natürlich stark von der ergonautek-Arbeitspraxis geprägt: Wir führen User Research in den meisten Fällen qualitativ durch unter Verwendung von ethnographischen und partizipativen Methoden. – Das Wörterbuch wird in den kommenden Tagen und Monaten weiter wachsen, es lohnt sich also, regelmäßig vorbeizuschauen.

Weitere Informationen:

• Seminar zur Praxis des User Research

In the front page story Gaynoor Aaltonen gives a general introduction into the topic. What makes service design so important today? We learn about the shift in consumerism: ” The choice, cost — are already met. People demand more.”, as Youngmihn Kim, cofounder of Continuum Korea, is cited. The article also gives insight into the work practice of service designers: The importance of user engagement in the design process is stressed and the need to take “a problem apart, as if it has never been looked at before”. Further on Aaltonen explains the way from the ‘old commodity focused industrial age’ into a new economic era:

The pundits argue that we are not just living through a time of great change but moving into an entirely new economic era. Whereas an industrial economy focuses on physical things, such as a car or a lightbulb, we are about to enter the age of the information economy – a post-industrial economy based no longer solely on manufacturing but more on knowledge, service and information industries. Businesses can best exploit this new economy by developing new services and expanding brand loyalty still further than today. The conceptual challenges are complex and include the integration of the physical and the virtual worlds, as well as a desire to live more sustainably.

Other articles cope with service design education, service design in the public sector or for the banking industry. Even though I appreciate the publication the fact that the supplement is sometimes more marketing than journalism lowers the credibility of the whole publication. Altogether it does a great deal raising attention for this emerging field. I would like to see a similar publication in a German newspaper.