Ethnographic studies

Ethnographic studies

Ethnography is a research method carried out in the context of people’s real world environments rather than in a lab. Findings from ethnographic research can identify users’ latent and explicit needs, and inform requirements for a new product or identify possible improvements.. They can help challenge assumptions about a system or product, or highlight particular issues or gaps in the overall customer experience.

Foviance offers two main types of ethnography studies: diary studies and contextual inquiry. The choice of technique will depend on the specific objectives and budget for the research.

Diary studies
Users are asked to record in detail their experiences with a particular system or product: what they did, when they did it, why and how, as well as what they thought about their overall experience. The method is adaptable to a wide range of investigations, from “out-of-the-box” experiences to longer studies across different target groups.

Contextual inquiry
Contextual requires detailed on site observation and interviewing of users, in order to obtain a more “natural” understanding of user behaviour in a real life situation. It is much more time and resource intensive, but can yield more reliable information – such as the level of criticality of an issue – as it is not self-reported.

The deliverable for an ethnography study is a detailed report, covering the the main findings from the research – analysis, excerpts of verbatims and “ah-ha” moment, diagrams, suggestions – which can also be presented in a workshop format.