Learn more about your users with Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic research allows you to understand human behaviour in the context of the person’s natural environment. Conducting your research this way allows you to gain insights about your user’s behaviours, unarticulated motivations, drivers and needs. Furthermore, having a comprehensive understanding of your users is critical for driving sustainable improvements of the user experience of your product. Ethnographic research equips you with that knowledge, allowing you to identify user needs that have yet to be met, test the market demand for products that don’t exist, provide a holistic view of a problem space and expose different opportunities for setting yourself apart from the competition.

When conducting interviews, whether at your office or on-site in the participant’s home and workplace, you’re able to put yourself in their shoes, understand their perspective, and accurately record and share that knowledge in an objective way to guide your designs. Here are a few tips on getting the most out of your ethnographic research:

• Get in context as much as possible and record everything
• Put together a discussion guide but be prepared to improvise
• Write out detailed descriptions of the scene
• Include stakeholder debriefs
• Record key events and incidents

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