Ethnography

In a few words (5 min read)

Making the Most of Ethnographic Research

This UX magazine article lists what ethnography can bring to your user research process. The author also gives five practical tips how to get the most out of ethnographic research as a designer.

Step by step (5–30 min read)

Shadowing in User Research — Do You See What They See?

A closer look at “shadowing”, one of the key ways to conduct ethnographic UX research. The key principle of shadowing is that the researcher acts as an observer only and does not interfere with user behavior.

Deep dive (30 min — few hours read)

7 Simple Ways to Get More From Ethnographic Research

If you are already familiar with conducting ethnographic research this article will provide you with simple suggestions how to progress in your practice.

Getting People to Talk: An Ethnography & Interviewing Primer

Just like the authors of this video written in their statement: “Ethnography and interviewing are how we, as designers, see the world through other people’s eyes and get them to tell us their stories.” As a research method, ethnography has been around for over a century, but many designers are not familiar with it. The video is a bit over 30 min long — it is a good investment of your time if you want to understand this method better.

Tools

Helsinki Design Lab ethnography fieldguide

A sample “field guide”, a manual for researchers used by participants of the HDL Studios workshops when conducting ethnographic research.