Ethnography and diary studies:Turning messy data into practical value

Turning Messy Data into Practical Value

Ethnography & video studies

● Introductions● Goals for our collaboration● Situating the research methods● Analyzing data from our study● Going deeper and exploring tensions

Overview & schedule

Introductions

IntroductionsWe’ll get to know each other much better over the course of the evening.

For now, introduce yourself and share. Take 1-2 minutes to jot down some notes.

● Your name● Your current title/position● Brief overview of your interest/experience with these methods● Your favorite (choose one)

○ Travel destination

○ Research war story

○ Binge-worthy TV show

Goals for our collaboration

What is a collaboration?

Where facilitators lead a

brainstorming session with

experienced practitioners

and do a “deep dive” into a topic

and attendees present examples and

participate actively

Emma, Chris & Brian!

You!

Ethnography & diary studies

All of us!

What do you hope to gain from this session?Step 1: On sticky notes, write down what you hope to gain from the session: a question, a frustration, a curiosity (the more the better)

Step 2: As a group, we’ll map the themes

Step 3: We’ll prioritize which topics to cover

Situating

Key characteristics

Reflecting on tensions

Situating the research methods

What are the key characteristics of this type of research?Again, let’s brainstorm

Step 1. Write on stickies

Step 2. Map themes

What are the challenges or tensions involved with doing this kind of research? Let’s break into teams:

Make a list of the challenges you have had with these methods.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

What vs. Why

Noticing vs. explaining

Quick turnaround vs. deep insights

Theoretical vs. practical

Big data vs. deep data

Reflecting on tensions

Why ethnography/video diaries? Why now? These methods

● Privilege context● Explores perspectives from a participant’s perspective● Provide rich insightful data for future decision making

Opportunities

● UX research is moving from fixing problems to informing strategy

Break!

Internal vs External ValidityControlled environments vs uncontrolled

Internal validity - Lab, controlled environment, replication

External Validity - Proximal Similarity Model

Ecological Validity - observation within natural context

Intensity of daily life experiences

People

Places

Time

Environment

Reflecting on our diary study

Debrief from dScout activityThe participant experience

The data

What was your experience being a participant?Brainstorm

Study scenarioWe are a company that puts on professional conferences. We want to understand the experience of people traveling to a conference and the information they may need on the way.

This is an exploratory study to find out more about people’s travel experiences and what information they are seeking along the way.

Together, let’s make sense of our study dataYour stakeholders want a quick preview of some emerging findings

In your teams, let’s take look at the raw data

Highlight 2-3 interesting insights from the study

We’ll ask each team to report out on 1 interesting insight

Communicating the results

How/What will you communicate back to the design team?

If you were going to conduct the study again next time, how would you do it?

Break!

Running your own diary study

Running your own diary study5 steps

5 types of diary studies

5 stepsPlan

Build

Screen

Manage

Analyze

5 types

Moments

Process

Inventory

Reflection

Ideation

Break!

Going deeper & exploring tensions

We’re going to go deeper into the issues we brainstormed at the start of the collaboration.

Issue 1: Data analysis

Issue 2: Reporting

Issue 3: Tools

Going deeper

Data analysis

Reporting results

Tools

Wrapping up

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

What vs. Why

Noticing vs. explaining

Quick turnaround vs. deep insights

Theoretical vs. practical

Big data vs. deep data

Reflecting on tensions

ReflectingWrite down three things from this collaboration that you are taking away from this session (and be ready to share)

What other areas do you feel like you need to learn more about

ResourcesSee the website: https://uxethnography.wordpress.com

Stay in touch!

Emma Rose [email protected]

Christopher LaRoche [email protected] Traynor [email protected]

Additional slides

Reporting results

Storytelling

Ladner, Practical Ethnography p. 163