Ethnography Workshop for Design Thinkers
Ethnography may be an old science born of colonialism, but it remains highly relevant in today’s world.
In fact, many brands you are familiar with, from the good old Ketchup to the isles in Walmart, make use of ethnography as part of their marketing research and product or in-store experience.
As part of the Design Thinking Montreal workshop series, ethnography expert and Design Thinking enthusiast Gaëlle Calvet gave an introductory workshop on the topic.
The goal: Shed some light on one of the many sciences that inspire Design Thinking.
Traditionally at the start of the process, ethnography can be used in Design Thinking in order to observe, interview or even experience first-hand what a user might be experiencing in various contexts.
This helps Design Thinkers launch into subsequent steps of ideation and prototyping while staying centered on the user needs. This is a core concept of the discipline.
For those of you new to Design Thinking, here is a quick overview on what it is and how empathy related to it.
Gaëlle has kindly offered to share the presentation with the community, enabling you to review some of the core concepts explored during the interactive workshop, given in French.
And for some fond memories of the workshop, here are some candid pictures of the participants at play.
It is at the core of our philosophy to marry theory with practice, and to run workshops that are playful and upbeat, to the image of Design Thinking itself.
Before we leave you to the pictures, we have compiled some additional resources on the topic for those who want to explore further:
- Join our Facebook Group, where references will be shared throughout the next week
- Have a look at our Design Thinking Video Library (look for Empathy)
- Check out our Free Downloadable Resources Center (look for Interview Toolkit)
- Take a peak at our original Discover Design Thinking Interview Series.
Workshop Presenter: Gaëlle Calvet
Gaëlle Calvet is passionate about creativity and empathy-driven innovations. As a former teacher, she led many projects using the Design Thinking Kit for Educators (IDEO) and she continuously strengthens her creative/Design Thinking skills, especially in storytelling. Committed to bring more empathy within the community she is living in, she relies on her strong background in History and Cultural Anthropology to help start-ups, organizations and people design efficient ethnographic research.
Learn more about Design Thinking @ http://www.designthinkingmtl.com/
