Ethnography 101: What makes it an Ethnography?
Over the next few posts I will list some characteristics of ethnographic research as practiced by Usography.
1. The location of research is where the activity under study takes place, i.e. it’s native context.
With research intended to guide the design of a web site, the context of the activity may be where people use the web site, or where they conduct other activities related to the topic of the web site. For example, if the ethnographic study intends to guide design of a vacation resort web site, the context could be the participant’s home, where they use the web site and engage in planning and reminiscing activities. Or, alternatively, the context could be on site at the resort. If the problem we are trying to solve is well-defined, then the location context should be very easy to identify.
Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)
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