Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods
Image courtesy of James PriceCSC8605 - 006

Video for Inquiry
Introduction
• Video in interaction design practice
• Tools to hand
Video Ethnography
• Co-discovery technique
• Design Documentaries
Video for Prototyping
• Documenting design process
• Experience prototyping
Video for Reflection
• Documentation
• Critical Reflection
Interaction Design methods

Using Video Tools to Hand

Video for Inquiry
Introduction
• Video in interaction design practice
• Tools to hand
Video Ethnography
• Co-discovery technique
• Design Documentaries
Video for Prototyping
• Documenting design process
• Experience prototyping
Video for Reflection
• Documentation
• Critical Reflection
Interaction Design methods

Video for Inquiry
Ethnography
is the systematic study of people and cultures in their natural setting – ‘in the field’.
Video Ethnography
“is the video recording of the stream of activity of subjects in their natural setting, in order to
experience, interpret, and represent culture and society”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_ethnography
• Observation including filming of practitioners’
• Reviewing recorded material with practitioners for reflexive discussion on practice
• Transforming practice through practitioner-led change
Key reference: Sarah Pink. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage Publications, 2007
(Chapters 5 & 9)
Interaction Design methods

Doing Video Ethnography
For empirical study:
- Video-making as data collection and analysis
Observation
Interviews and dialogue
Editing and story-making in production
- Video to generate qualitative forms of knowledge
Ethnographic
Phenomenological
Interpretative
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Video for Inquiry
Doing Video Ethnography
Use creative approaches:
• E.g. Storytelling
Use technical skill & good practice:
• In filming
• In editing and production
Engage with real world experiences for
• Fostering empathy
• Finding inspiration
• Understanding life as lived
Key reference: Sarah Pink. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage Publications, 2007
(Chapters 5 & 9)
Interaction Design methods

How can video data be used?
- People-centred approach to design
- Interaction design methods grounded in understanding real-world experiences
- Fostering novel perspectives for empathy and inspiration
- Film/video as a resource for reflection and ideation
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Co-discovery technique
- Researchers film participants in context of everyday life (multiple field visits)
• Observational footage is reviewed by researcher, relevancies are highlighted in edit
• Edited footage is presented back to participants to review with researcher
• Video is a stimulus for researchers and participants to discuss footage
• Shared as a stimulus for dialogue, reflection on the subject & setting
• Participants are invited to adopt novel perspectives on their lives
• Researchers & participants illuminate instances of potential significance
• Participants’ reflections direct the researcher's final edit
• Editing is a form of analysis, generating insights
• Final video edit is easily shareable with others whilst retaining a 'closeness' to
the original data and experience.
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Co-discovery technique
• The participants are trying to make sense of their world;
• The researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense
of their worlds
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Co-discovery technique for video ethnography
Example
Brief from Mobile Telecoms Client: ‘Working mothers‘personal time’
How do working mothers manage their time at home?
How do working mothers manage mobile phone use,
including when they are not using their mobile phones?
How do we open up a design space?
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods
Media courtesy of Naked Eye Research

Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Working mothers’ personal time: Insights
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Working mothers’ personal time: Insights
By getting up extra early, the family creates time together – no one rushes.
She talks about the aesthetics of experience
Seeing herself on here is revelatory:
• Mum does everything she can to get others up in the morning
• Kids make time for themselves by leaving the house 30 minutes early
• This enables mum to make time (30 mins) for herself)
• This helps create a relaxing morning for her husband
Mum is concerned to create a particular experience at home in the morning
Mum is concerned to create dedicated time for herself in the morning
Any services that helps Mum communicate to organise her family for
creating this time would be valued
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Doing video ethnography
Research with people, not on people, to co-discover
how people live in a real-world context (behaviour, experience)
what people see themselves doing
people’s reasons for their actions
articulated and latent needs and desires to inform design
Ethnographic inquiry is made through filming, editing and directing the video.
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Doing video ethnography: criteria for evaluation
Sensitivity to context
grounding in existing knowledge of subject, showing empathy
Commitment to the subject
Seeing something through to the deliverable
Rigour, transparency and coherence
conducting and documenting a research process
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Design documentaries
Researchers employ film-makers to interpret a designed artefact/ artwork
Take inspiration from documentary film techniques
Gain additional perspectives, interpretations
Use film-makers to engage with prototypes ‘in the wild’
Focus on everyday life, leaving the ‘erratic and elusive intact’
Documentary as a resource for reflection, evaluation, and ideation
Examples
The Plane Tracker by Interaction Studio, Goldsmiths College
Design Documentaries: www.designdocumentaries.com
Key reference: Bas Raijmakers Design Documentaries. Proc. DIS 2006, ACM Press
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Design documentaries
Example: The Plane Tracker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvIVw1MDwYI
Observe how the video clip is working to communicate a design prototype
Critically reflect on how it communicates:
- lived experience
- real-world impact
- the users’ view
- other perspectives
-
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Plane Tracker
By Goldsmiths Interaction Studio
Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods

Video for Prototyping
Documenting a creative process
Now we turn to consider video as a material and mechanism to prototype, to
communicate.
Video is very effective for documenting a creative process. Video documentation
affords you to quickly and effectively communicate the development of ideas, and
how a designed artefact or artwork functions.
e.g. MAG+
BONNER & BERG Conceptual Video for a digital magazine layout (YouTube 2009)
.
IxD methods

Video for Prototyping
Documenting a creative process
• Be mindful of good pacing in presentation of material
• Interleave demonstrations of use with description of concepts
• Provide appropriate level of detail for intended audience
• Devise a well structured storyline
• Make effective use of visual explanation
IxD methods

Video for Prototyping
For experience prototyping
• Explore concepts without implementation
• We just talked about how video can be used to document
designs. Video affords us a means to effectively and engagingly
explore how a novel technology design might be used, without
needing to implement it.
• Build a coherent story, use cheap and cheerful tricks:
Hot Wheels prototype
IxD methods

For experience prototyping
• Explore concepts without implementation
• Hot Wheels prototype:
• http://vimeo.com/5125096
“This is a concept video for Sketch-a-move: A toy car that allows you to
explore the unique relationships between small surface doodles and
actual physical movements. If you draw a circle on the top of the toy car,
it will move in a circle. If you draw a complicated spiral, the car will move
in a spiral. The video visualises the varied experiences of interaction
and scenarios of engagement.” -- Anab Jain & Louise Klinker
Video for Prototyping IxD methods

For experience prototyping
Exploring multiple interpretations of potentially controversial or future design proposals
• Contravisions
• Design Fictions
• Invisible Design
Key references:
Clara Mancini et al. Contravision: exploring users’ reactions to futuristic technology. In
Proceedings of CHI 2010, ACM Press
Julian Bleecker. A short essay on design fiction. Near Future Laboratory 2009
Pam Briggs et al. Invisible Design: exploring insights and ideas through ambiguous film
scenarios. In Proceedings of DIS 2012, ACM Press.
Video for Prototyping IxD methods

Video: the reflexive medium
• Video is an electronic medium, dependent on the transfer of electronic signals.
Video signals are in constant movement, circulating between camera and monitor.
• Arguably, video is not merely an intermediate stage between analog and digital but a
medium in its own right. Video has metamorphosed from technology to medium, with
a set of aesthetic languages that are specific to it.
• Video is a flexible sensor. After Spielmann, video may be considered as
"transformation imagery" acknowledging the centrality in video of the transitions
between images.
• There are different kinds of practice for handling video as a material and medium: e.g.
documentary, experimental art, and experimental image-making.
Key reference: Yvonne Spielmann. Video: The Reflexive Medium. 2007, MIT Press
See also: Satellite Lamps: http://technorhetoric.net/19.1/inventio/martinussen-et-al
Video for Reflection IxD methods

Tips for good video production:
• Think about continuity, in terms of narrative and visual communication.
• Look out for continuity errors, in terms of visual and narrative communication.
• Think about pacing your message, and pausing for impact.
• For observational research, give space to real-time, real-world interactions.
• Give particularly significant content sufficient lead-in time.
• If your video footage but has poor quality sound, consider using a voiceover.
• Vice versa, if the sound is good, consider using an image in place.
• When you have poor quality footage/ audio, is it vital to the project?
• Can it be reshot/ re-recorded/ replaced?
• Make sure text is on screen long enough to read it
• Make sure text is big enough to read, and high enough contrast.
Using video IxD methods

Strategies for critically evaluating your video documentation
• Seek feedback, not complements
• Detach yourself emotionally from the work for the duration of the critique.
• Explain don't defend blindly.
• In one sentence, what is your video trying to communicate?
• Ask a stranger to the work what the video communicates.
• How does the video support the message or idea that you want to get across?
• Can you explain why you made the work and how; explain your process?
• Critique it before it's finished!
• View criticism on finished pieces as feedback for improving future work.
Video for Reflection IxD methods

Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods
Image courtesy of James PriceCSC8605 - 006
Further reading
Sarah Pink. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage Publications, 2007 (Chapters 5 & 9).
Bas Raijmakers. Design Documentaries: inspiring design research through documentary
film. In Proceedings of DIS 2006, ACM Press.
Clara Mancini et al. Contravision: exploring users’ reactions to futuristic technology. In
Proceedings of CHI 2010, ACM Press.
Pam Briggs et al. Invisible Design: exploring insights and ideas through ambiguous film
scenarios. In Proceedings of DIS 2012, ACM Press.
Julian Bleecker. A short essay on design fiction. Near Future Laboratory 2009.
Yvonne Spielmann. Video: The Reflexive Medium. MIT Press, 2007. (Chapters 1 & 2).

Video for Inquiry Interaction Design methods
Image courtesy of James PriceCSC8605 - 006
For next week:
Working in your module groups, please make a short, two-minute video piece.
This should be a reflective, ethnographically-informed piece capturing either
(a) your experience of working in Space 10 or
(b) your experience of using a local civic amenity.
Next week for CSC8605 – 008 we will do a ‘Show and Tell’ to discuss the pieces.
Draw upon resources you have to hand and the shared expertise within your group.