Ethnography

... and HCI

``Ethnography is a culture-studying culture.''

(Spradley, 1979)

Slides prepared by Martha Haigler

(table of contents)

1. Ethnography

• refers to both:
  • work of studying the culture (process)

  • the end product (written text, ``an ethnography'')

• consists of knowledge that includes research techniques, ethnographic theory, and cultural descriptions

2. Origins of Ethnography

• Anthropology
  • a way of gaining insights into the life experiences of people whose everyday reality was different from those living in Western developed societies

• Sociology
  • focus on ``sub-groups" within industrial societies (e.g. youth, addict, ethnic groups)

3. CROWD MISTAKES RESCUE ATTEMPT, ATTACKS POLICE

Nov. 23, 1973. Hartford, Connecticut. Three policemen giving a heart massage and oxygen to a heart attack victim Friday were attacked by a crowd of 75 to 100 persons who apparently did not realize what the policemen were doing.

Other policemen fended off the crowd of mostly Spanish speaking residents until an ambulance arrived. Police said they tried to explain to the crowd what they were doing, but the crowd apparently thought they were beating the woman.

Despite the policemen's efforts, the victim, Evangelica Echevacria, 59, died.

(Spradley, 1979)

4. Symbolic Interactionism

The Crowd's Culture:

• To interpret policemen's behavior as cruel

• To act on the woman's behalf to end this 'police brutality'

• To interpret the woman's condition as heart failure

• To give cardiac massage and oxygen to the woman

• Interpreted the crowd's behavior totally different from how the crowd saw their own behavior

5. The Practice of Ethnography

Four Basic Presuppositions

• a commitment to studying activities in the ``natural" setting in which they occur

• an interest in developing detailed descriptions of the lived experience

• a focus on what people actually do

• understanding the relation between activities and environment

6. D.R.S. Method

The Developmental Research Sequence

1. Locating an Informant

2. Interviewing an Informant

3. Making an Ethnographic Record

4. Asking Descriptive Questions

5. Analyzing Ethnographic Interviews

6. Making a Domain Analysis

7. Asking Structural Questions

8. Making a Taxonomic Analysis

9. Asking Contrast Questions

10. Making a Componential Analysis

11. Discover Cultural Themes

12. Writing an Ethnography

7. Ethical Issues

• Consider informants first

• Safeguard informants' rights, interests, and sensitivities

• Communicate research objectives

• Protect the privacy of informants

• Must not exploit informants

• Make reports available to informants

8. Ethnography and HCI

Definition based on HCI and systems design communities:

``ethnography refers to an approach used to develop understandings of everyday work practices and technologies in use" (Blomberg, 1995)

9. Ethnography and HCI

• attempts began in the 1980s

• the narrow focus on isolated individuals using computational artifacts was inadequate

• an emerging consensus that human intelligence was socially constituted and achieved

• a growing interest in developing computer technologies that acknowledged and supported the cooperative nature of human activity

• viewed as a way of gaining insights into the nature of human activity that could provide the grounds for the design of new technologies

10. Ethnography and System Design

• Studies of work
  • explicate how work is accomplished in valued and complex settings

• Studies of technologies in use
  • spreadsheets and CAD systems

  • Blomberg's Trillium

• PD/CSCW (To Be Discussed)

11. Future Work

• Small-scale to large-scale projects

• Specific to generic products

• Efficiency vs. job elimination ethics