Doing field research
We decided, that on top of our normal desk research we will do some field research that will give us the Newham experience first hand. Ethnographic methods (the study of people and cultures) are commonly used by user researchers at various stages of projects. When it comes to researching a local council community, there is a lot of value of doing research at the beginning. It allows you to-quickly immerse yourself in the context (especially for those who don’t know much about the area), you can identify spots for recruitment, research, and channels for engagement, and you start to make contacts with people who can support you during research you may do for projects later on.
At Newham, we did our field research at the very beginning of our project, even before we had a specific research brief. Doing it so early meant that we still had our eyes wide open and it gave us the opportunity to quickly bond as a team. We spent one full day (= several hours) walking around the borough. There were four of us who conducted the field research, and we decided to split into two teams to cover more ground. We followed two different paths that cut through two neighbourhood areas (see where went here). Each of the paths included locations where the members of the community spend time such as community centres, libraries, shopping areas, and open spaces.
During the walks we talked to residents, non-residents, shop owners, Newham staff and made loads of contacts for further research activities like the use research pop up events we have planned. We also collected leaflets and learnt about upcoming library events that we could contribute to. We walked around popular shopping streets, had lots of Indian sweets and window shopped for saris. We learnt that Romford road is known for the biggest number of parking tickets issued in the U.K. and is also home to a pub which is full of ghosts! Going around the area on our own was the best way to understand who our users are, thus informing who we’ll be designing services for.
At the end of the day, we talked about key findings, and handed in our disposable cameras to be printed. Back at the office, we analysed the photos and grouped them into themes such as hangouts; places to hold events, open spaces etc. Since then, we have created an interactive board within the back office where staff at the council can contribute to our findings and suggest other places for us to go. We hope that through a visual map we can engage people working in the council so that they support us in designing and providing the best services for the locals.
Some tips from the team:
- Assign a lot (more than you think!) time to explore areas and walk around — it takes time to get to know people and discover the locations;
- Be creative and chatty — you never know what you’ll learn, from whom, and how useful it will be in the future;
- Assign tasks to teams — eg. one team focuses on entertainment while the other on council owned locations — this will allow more interesting discussions between teams;
- Take loads of photos. Disposable cameras are a great tool to have with you — taking pictures with them feels much more involved and you can print the photos out to use as cards in the future;
- Other tools that are very useful: a small notebook, a backpack to collect information on paper, comfortable shoes, an audio recorded and — snacks :)
- Make it fun!
