Why Insider Point of View in Design?
Design Researcher Approach #1
Anthropology is a holistic science that deeply examines people’s behaviour and culture for the past and the present. Anthropological studies describe an event or a cultural behaviour and while doing this, they focus on not superficial and shallow but deeper, hidden, emic, and mostly qualitative data. For this in-depth analysis, we can use the term “thick description” which means interpretive theory in culture (Geertz, 2008).
There are methods and ways developed to understand the relationship between the object and the subject. Cultural analysis is quite significant to understand this relationship and its results. As mentioned before, cultural analysis is not just about observation, it also includes the insider’s point of view (Sunderland and Denny, 2007). The gist is how to create this point of view, there are some methods and procedures for the creation. One of these methods is the ethnographic approach which is borrowed from anthropology. The important thing while doing research is to pay attention to the interpretation. What the participants say (interviews, articulation), make (participant observation, co-design exercises, workshops) and do(observation) are the significant factors of the cultural analysis.
The importance of ethnographic research is to find the hidden need behind the research. Thus, with the data of the majority, the researcher can determine the needs of particular users such as extreme and lead users, which are of great value to the designer. In addition, the researcher must record the data in his/her way. The data can be various elements such as emotions, psychological reactions, actions, facial expressions, and the researcher ought to take notes (field notes, jotting method) (Emerson, 2011), audiovisual recordings and photographs. However, the longer the anthropological studies take, the better and more accurate they will be although, in the design principle, it’s the other way around. In a capitalist and consumption-oriented culture, the faster the design process takes place and the final product emerge, the better and more profitable it will be. Many types of ethnography have been put forward for anthropology to reach fast and deep data together with the design.
On the other hand, the design research process is described in three phases (Squires & Byrne, 2002). The first one, “discovery”, focuses on learning consumer culture and it is the most time-consuming phase of the process. The “definition” phase is to implicate the research outputs to the consumer culture, and finally, with “evaluation”, the usability is measured. If we want the design research process to reach more in-depth analysis, design ethnography is one of the methods developed for this purpose. Compared to the traditional ethnography, it is future-oriented and can be supported by various speculative scenarios. Unlike traditional ethnography, it tries to identify patterns in a much shorter time.
Those mentioned so far are more anthropology-oriented approaches. When we look at its relationship with design, we can consider design anthropology in two different ways. The first is “design for anthropology”, the main purpose of which is to produce prospective anthropological data. In this approach, anthropological knowledge is produced by making use of design methods, for example, a speculative reality is created with prototypes and creative games, and the behaviours and reactions of the participants in this reality are collected as data. In short, it is possible to intervene in daily life with design tools such as prototypes and to reach anthropological knowledge by creating a possible future. Another is “anthropology for design”, which includes design ethnography (Halse, 2013; Murphy, 2016; Singh, 2021). Some methods used in anthropology, such as ethnography, are borrowed during design research. Anthropological knowledge can be used and produced for design because the design is also about exploring hidden human needs, making cultural analyses, and solving the problems of a particular culture. The approach that finds these two equally important is “Anthropology through Design” (AtD) (Singh, 2021). In AtD, there are events such as creating anticipatory prototypes, tests and setting up. There is a tendency to design together in AtD, and it can also be defined as participatory, it can be said that it is collaborative future-making. The “Design Thinking” method which is frequently used by both concrete tangible product designers and digital product designers working in consultancy, banking, insurance sectors, is a compact method of anthropology for design. Design thinking is an end-to-end iterative process from discovery to testing that focuses on solution production quickly and effectively. It can be said that it doesn’t make sense to categorize the solidarity of anthropology and design in this way. Undoubtedly, that anthropology’s utility in the design research process is enormous. Understanding the user needs in-depth and doing the thick description is the first and most important thing that the designer should do to produce a solution.
Bibliography
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