Commercial Ethnography Euro Ia 2008 Kalbach

Commercial Ethnography Innovating Information Experiences

James Kalbach

User Experience Design LexisNexis

LIS Degree Rutgers University

Direct Observations

Natural Setting

Participant Observers

‘ Thick Descriptions’

Life is Complex Image from: www.pbase.com/drasko/mindoro_tribes

Holistic

Ethnography is… Observational Qualitative Context Engagement Naturalistic Subject centred Naivety Flexible Evolving Thick Descriptions

a.k.a.

Field Studies, Workplace Studies, Cultural Probes

Immersive Research, Design Ethnography

Commercial Ethnography

Meet business needs

Accelerated time scales

Focused themes

Directed observation

Strategic impact

Innovation

Beyond what people say

Unexpressed needs

Real world visible

Longevity of data

Fuels creativity

Innovation opportunities

Informs your intuition

Benefits

1 Evangelise

2 Prepare

3 Conduct

4 Analyse

5 Ideate

6 Validate

Our Approach

Demonstrate value

Cost = Usability test

Make business arguments

Business literature

Competitors

Success stories

Find a champion

1. Evangelise

P&G spends for more time living with people in there homes, shopping with them in stores, and being part of their lives . This total immersion leads to richer consumer insights, which helps identify innovation opportunities that are often missed by traditional research.

“ „

Start small - 6 participants

Outside of project lifecycle

Recruiting

Interviews at workplace

Define business objectives

2. Prepare

Observational interviews

Open questioning, but semi-structured

Exemplary tasks & typical day

Critical incident

Record audio and take photos

Bring sponsors

3. Conduct

4. Analysis Environment Industry Organisation Physical Environment Technical Setup Opportunities Pains/Pleasures Known Needs & Ideas Effectiveness/Ineffectiveness Efficiencies/Inefficiencies Workarounds Novel Technologies Artefacts Tools Resources Work Products People & Work Actors Roles Work Activities Observations

I prefer directed observation: search out the workarounds, hacks, and clever improvisations of everyday life. That’s where the answers lie: someone else has already encountered the need, someone else has already hinted at a solution.

“ „ “ Workarounds and Hacks – The Leading Edge of Innovation,” interactions (Aug 2008)

Long Way

Transcribe session

Code text with themes

Find patterns

Effort for a 2-hour interview

Transcription: very long

Coding: 8 hours

Analysis

Short Way

Spreadsheet with themes

(Re-listen to interviews)

Fill in columns

Find patterns

Effort for a 2-hour interview

Transcription: none

Coding: 2-4 hours

Data = Text + Observations

Workshop

Make findings visible

Brainstorm

Outcomes

Ideas for new products and services

Enhancements to existing product

Assign ownership

Delivering a report is not the goal

5. Ideate

Re-visit users

Discuss findings

Show them deliverables

Personas

Scenarios

Diagrams

Product ideas

In groups or individually

6. Validate

Why do lawyers prefer paper?

Habit

Reading online

Security

Backup

Dependency on third party

Portability

Annotations

Information Experience

Why do lawyers prefer paper?

Overview of information

Comparison of multiple sources

Visual aspects for organisation

Colour coding

Physical aspects for workflow

Piles to prioritize and sort

Location indicates task

Size shows how much work

Information Experience

One thing I find helpful is sometimes when matters cross boundaries, you can have three books open on your desk at the same time and refer to all of them at once. I don’t know whether that would be possible if you were looking online. “ „

“ Redefining the Reading Experience”

“ With LexisNexis, everything is the same”

We had to out-book the book “ „

Tangible UI Easy to Recognize Shareable Online > Offline “ Whenever we are organizing information, the book is too powerful an idea to do without in some form or other.“ - David Gelernter