When Design Met Anthropology

When Design Met AnthropologyChristina Wasson

Outline of presentation

• How design met anthropology

• Emergence of a new, hybrid field: design anthropology

• Process of collaboration

• Case study

• Collaboration between design and anthropology during economic crisis

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Prior social science partners with design

•Cognitive psychology/human factors

•Marketing research

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How design met anthropology

• Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW)

• Xerox PARC

• E-Lab

• “Ethnography” became buzzword rather than anthropology

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What is ethnography?

• Fundamental research approach of ANTHROPOLOGY (cultural and linguistic)

• Developed in early 1900s as a novel approach to understanding cultures: immersion, “participant observation”

• The goal of ethnography is “to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world” (Malinowski 1922:24-25)

• Combined humanistic and scientific elements

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Why ethnography appeals to designers

• Reveals use in context (not lab)

• Goes beyond what people say they do (focus group) to what they really do

• Uncovers discrepancies between designers’ intended use of product and everyday behaviors

• Power of ethnographic video as communication tool

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Emergence of “design anthropology”

• Interdisciplinary, hybrid field

• Jobs - Intel, Microsoft, Motorola, IBM, SAP, Wells Fargo, Pitney Bowes, Philips, Rolls Royce, etc. + consultancies

• Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference www.epic2009.com

• Uncovers social and symbolic aspects of user experience

• Especially useful for exploratory research

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The downside of popularity

• “Ethnography Lite”

• Anyone can do it

• No theory toolkit

• Data collection, not analysis

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Theories in design anthropology

• General anthropology “toolkit” includes theories about globalization, modernity, consumption, technology use, identity, religion, kinship, political economy, social organization...

• Particular focus on interactions between people and artifacts, drawing on ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, activity theory

E-Lab’s AEIOU framework:• Activities• Environments• Interactions• Objects• Users

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Methods in design anthropology: data collection

• Video recording

• Open to innovation

• Shadowing• Guerilla fieldwork• Photo narratives

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Methods in design anthropology: analysis

• What are the patterns?

• Intuition/memory can be misleading

• Use software to code videorecordings and transcripts

• Move from patterns to explanatory models

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Collaboration between anthropologists and designers

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What can go wrong in the collaboration

• Anthropologists may feel their expertise is not valued and they are underutilized

• Designers encounter frustration when they are given research results that do not point to practical applications

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E-Lab’s partnership between research and design

• Staffing

• Organizational structures

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E-Lab’s work process: the bowtie model

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Case study

Social TV Peripherals: Ethnographic Research and Design ImplicationsClient: MotorolaSpring 2008

Social TV

• Goal: enabling people to watch TV “together” when they are not physically co-present

• Software runs over TV that shows buddy list, who is watching what, ability to go to same show and open audio connection

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Peripheral devices

• Ambient light or other signal to indicate presence when members of buddy list watch TV

• Remote control to interact with the application

• Audio connection (microphone and speakers) for communication between participants

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Fieldwork

• 10 in-home interviews to see how family members share devices and how they personalize them

• 5 participatory design sessions to gather more information about sharing and ownership of devices, and to stimulate design ideas for the Social TV peripherals

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Participatory design sessions

• Materials: Play-Doh, Legos, paper and colored pencils

• Explanation of Social TV

• Invitation to design peripherals

• Discussion of designs to elicit family practices and needs

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Tangible models of social TV peripherals

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Explanatory frameworks

• Family dynamics around the remote

• How copresent families watch TV

• Mobility while watching TV

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Family dynamics around the remote

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Family dynamics around the remote

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Family dynamics around the remote

How copresent families watch TV

• Current practices that need to be taken into account to develop a successful social TV product

• Each family member pursued own trajectory of activities, and they often engaged in multitasking

• Every household in the in-home interviews had more than one television

• Majority of TV watching was done alone

• Family members connected to their friends virtually via phone, internet

• Design implication: one person, one social TV

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How copresent families watch TV

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How copresent families watch TV

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How copresent families watch TV

Mobility while watching TV

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Ideas from participatory design sessions

• Reconfigure peripherals to just a remote and docking station; remote includes touch screen, audio, ambient lights (inspired by iPhone, iPod)

• Use sound in addition to light to indicate presence

• Aesthetics should be clean, timeless, unobtrusive; concerns about the ambient orb

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Conclusions: collaboration between design and anthropology in a time of economic crisis

• Enhancing the “fit” between products and users is more important than ever

• Contributing to innovation and design thinking

• Uncovering a shift in the culture of consumption

• Globalization

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Questions?