Ethnographic Studies: A Research Approach Beyond UX?

Learnings from an ethnographic research activity that we joined in Bali Indonesia, and some of the questions that popped in my mind after all that “dirty” field work.

This is a blog entry that I wrote to document my thoughts from the Cultural Tour that we did when we joined the 5th CHIuXiD Conference in Bali Indonesia last April 1–8 2019. This was also presented as a lightning talk in the June Meetup organized by UXPH held last June 29 2019.

Here is a photo of me walking along Penglipuran Village, which is a traditional Balinese Village in Central Bali, Indonesia.

So, hi! I’m Jordan, a computer scientist. In one of the academic conference I attended, we had a cultural tour where we did this thing called an Ethnographic Study. It was my first time to participate in an ethnographic research, even especially as part of an academic conference. Usually, conferences would just have keynotes, parallel sessions, networking events and even socials. The 5th International HCI and UX Conference in Indonesia, which we refer to as CHiuXiD 2019 had a Cultural Tour. Part of it included an ethnographic study.

So what is an ethnographic research/study? The sources define it as…

Ethnographic research is a qualitative method where researchers observe and/or interact with a study’sparticipants in their real-life environment. Ethnography was popularised by anthropology, but is used across a wide range of social sciences. Read more from: Spotless

If we would be technical about it, this shouldn’t be my first ethnographic study. I may have done some related work in the past. But let’s just say that this was my first “official” ethnographic study where we used some UX research skills to come up with some findings that can be useful later on.

Here is a photo of me and my team. During the said tour, we were asked to form groups and the approach of the ethnographic research was sort of like a competition where the group with the best results will be given a prize. This is the delegation from DLSU AdRIC COMET (from back and L to R): Jolene Valenzuela, Giselle Nodalo, Emir Mendoza, (from front and L to R): Brian Poblete, me, JM Santiago III and Julian De Castro.

About half an hour drive away from Bali, was Penglipuran Village. It is a traditional Village located in Central Bali and is situated 700m above sea level. It has cool mountain breeze and a very clean state. The villagers who stay in the community are subsidized by the government so they could reside within the village — to live, and give life to the village.

A photo of the Penglipuran Village. You will see the stone gates and shrines and the arching bamboo stems that are decorated.

Upon our arrival at the village, one of our hosts gave us a design challenge: interview and immerse yourself in the village and with the villagers and try to understand their culture. So with my team, we decided to work as a group, assign roles so we could get a complete picture of every scenario, element and cultural artifact during the said tour.

Here is JM taking notes on layout structure and other significant/notable architectural elements within the village

Here is a Giselle holding a camera and a gorilla-pod, to take a video that captures the POV during the tour

Here is a photo of Emir, Julian, Jolene and Brian taking notes, observing surroundings and behaviors they found worth noticing

Together, as a team, we went around the village. We were allowed to enter the different houses, lots and areas. Some team members were assigned to look and observe certain traits, features while some did the taking of photos and videos, while some members did the interviews and observations. We were able to capture a few interesting elements and as we did, we tried to probe into how these elements play a role in the local culture of Penglipuran, Hindu culture and Balinese culture in general.

An example of a daily canang — “chanang”. Small, square, woven baskets made from cut coconut leaves and filled with flowers — accompanied by an assortment of gifts for the Gods and topped with a single smouldering stick of incense. These are canangs that are placed on the ground to appease the lower spirits — ensuring harmony and peace in the family. Read more from: Indoneo.

We were already able to notice the moment we set foot in Bali that there are these offerings placed on the ground almost everywhere. This is a practice by the Balinese Hindu. These canangs are placed on different locations and heights and the placing of these offerings also represent a portion of their beliefs — the target receivers of these offerings. By tradition, the women in every household prepares and provides these offerings to the spirits that are believed to surround the people who live in the village. By belief, spirits dwell in higher and lower areas of the world and as such, these offerings have to be made so that these spirits do not bother the living.

Several canang’s stacked and piled in a mailbox like structure. Upon inquiry, these canang are meant for the middle spirits — usually the spirits of the family who have passed away.

If you look closely, the bamboo archs that are decorated and seen in the villages are able to contain and hold some incense. These are also some canang that are meant for higher spirits — the gods and guardians of the family, household.

We toured, visited a few houses and interviewed a few local folk. Upon checking out a number of households, we were able to observe and find some similarities and patterns in terms of layout, architecture and common elements.

Every household had a gate. And you will immediately be welcomed by a store that sells local handicraft work made by the local folk.

The crafts ranged from the common wind chimes, masks and other symbols that are frequently seen in Asian culture.

Every household will have a “mask” carved in wood and is posted by the door. Upon inquiry, it is believed that this is sculpture of the male founder of the household who has passed away.

Every household will have a “shrine” zone that contains stone sculptures of their chosen gods as guardians. These sections are enclosed by iron fences. These shrines are found near the gate and beside the store.

We were able to note some other observations where unfortunately we were not able to take photos of. Examples of these are:

In every household compound, the layout is usually arranged as: Gate >Shrine > Store > Kitchen > Living Quarters. The kitchen is where they keep metal objects such as cookwares, knives. Upon inquiry, we were able to discover that such layout and organization provides for the belief that evil spirits are “drawn away” by these metallic objects even before they enter the main household if they pass thru the shrines. Since the kitchen keeps all these metal objects, the noise and vibrations they make would keep the spirits from entering the main household.

As shared and revealed to us by Eunice Sari, one of the leaders of the tour, the eldest woman in the family must live and not leave the Kitchen of each household. As part of their tradition, the elderly woman must stay in the kitchen and not leave her bows of serving the family. It is believed that if she leaves the kitchen, she has abandoned her duties to the household.

These are some of the findings we were able to uncover during this quick ethnographic tour that we did in Penglipuran Village. These elements appear to be obvious and taken for granted for an eye that is in a hurry, absent-minded or focused on other things. But an immersive activity such as an ethnographic research allows the researcher to pause, observe and appreciate the symbolisms that lie around us.

Photo of post-its from our team. Here we drew our observations, findings and other insights we were able to draw from our ethnographic research.

At the end of the Cultural Tour, our team actually won the “competition”. The second best contender was a 7year old girl who was very competitive and almost beat us with her findings.

The rest of the tour proceeded to other venues and places that are culturally-relevant to Bali. And in the duration of the said tour, some questions have actually popped in my mind…

As a computer scientist, I have seen and done a lot of work in an industrial or urban setting. I do not know a lot of sociological or anthropological folks and whether they do these immersive trips as well. I would want to initiate or join an ethnographic research trip that will immerse or expose us in a certain local culture somewhere in the Philippines. By working with User Experience Society — DLSU, maybe someday we can organize small immersion trips that will teach and expose students and researchers on doing ethnographic research.

One interesting note is that, the Philippines is a culturally-rich country. We have a very diverse set of tribes, groups, subcultures, ethnic societies*. We even have living treasures who are embodiments of the cultures and heritages that they represent.

I begin to wonder whether our country can be led towards a design-mature society that considers and leverages powerful tools like an ethnographic research. We ask some of the following questions such as:

How might we use ethnographic studies done in the Philippines..

..to help in policy and legislation (especially in understanding, supporting and protecting the welfare of the Lumads)?

..to design humane solutions that will help local folk cope as they migrate and live within the digital era?

.. to use technology (empower research and development) in helping preserve our local culture/uphold tradition?

In the move towards a digital transformation era where businesses and industries are “out with the old and in with the new”, people tend to forget or neglect tradition, and a culturally-rich career might appear as unappealing as compared to digitally-empowered jobs (Digital Humanities vs Immersive Reality?). Yet we must not forget that these artifacts, traditions are the blueprints of the core Filipino trait, or of any local trait. And we believe this calls for the preservation of the cultures that they represent. In an age where technology is on the rise, and interfaces become more ubiquitous, how might we use ethnographic research to empower and design solutions that will preserve the very elements of our culture that define our DNA?

*(I do hope that I am politically-correct with these terms. Please do call me out if I may have misused some of these terms. Thank you for the feedback).