Jeffrey Heer · 23 April 2009
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stanford hci group / cs376 http:// cs376.stanford.edu Jeffrey Heer · 23 April 2009 Fieldwork
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Fieldwork. Jeffrey Heer · 23 April 2009. Hugh Dubberly’s 3x3. “The conceptual morass into which the Tylorean kind of pot-au-feu theorizing about culture can lead, is evident in what is still one of the better general introductions to anthropology, Clyde Kluckhohn Mirror for Man .” - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Jeffrey Heer · 23 April 2009
stanford hci group / cs376
http://cs376.stanford.eduJeffrey Heer · 23 April 2009
Fieldwork
Hugh Dubberly’s 3x3
“The conceptual morass into which the Tylorean kind of pot-au-feu theorizing about culture can lead, is evident in what is still one of the better general introductions to anthropology, Clyde Kluckhohn Mirror for Man.”
Class comments “pontification and turgid prose” “don't see how the paper contributes to the class”
“…if you want to understand what a science is, you should look in the first instance not at its theories or its findings, and certainly not at what its apologists say about it; you should look at what the practitioners of it do.”
Class comments “an excellent job outlining the interpretive nature of theory of culture” “especially helpful and effective in projects involving cross-cultural design, customization, and localization”
Big Questions for Today
What knowledge does fieldwork produce?
How/what can/should I observe? How should observation and design
relate?
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“You Are Not the User”
Seems obvious, but… Different experiences Different terminology Different ways of looking at the world
Easy to think of self as typical userEasy to make mistaken assumptions
How do you know...
What the important problems for users are?
Whether an idea is a good idea?
Why fieldwork? “Data is the only reliable outside arbiter” [Beyer and Holtzblatt]
What knowledge does fieldwork yield?
A few candidates: None at all – it’s anecdotal The most authentic kind of knowledge,
because that’s what people do Fieldwork is a great tool for generating
insight, but it’s not “science” “to make available to us answers that
others …have given, and thus to include them in the consultable record of what man has said”
Fieldwork methods in HCI
Task analysisContextual inquiryCultural probesDiary studiesEthnographyPager studies (Experience sampling)Content analysis
What makes for a good interview?
“Walk me through …”How/what vs. Yes/noThe dangers of “why”?Identify salient elements
Conflict. Shame. Humor.
Recall vs. recognition
Ethnography
Ethno + graphy: the writing of cultureField notes are indispensible data
Observations
On one side of your notebook you might document what you have observed. Attempt to avoid interpretation and speculation in these notes.
W/M/brwn suit faster than W/F/pink top. F slows, M passes.M puts tick in machine, pulls out top, does not stop walking
Interpretations
On the other side of the notebook you might document interpretations, questions, and possible theories of behavior.
Right-away determined by velocity (urgency)?
Fluid movement of ticket exchange signifies “expert” rider?
Ethnography
Ethno + graphy: the writing of cultureField notes are indispensible dataParticipant-Observation
“Natural settings” Questions of trust and access?
Informants… What does this mean for online settings?
Role of theory in interpretation?Reflexivity and bias: you are in your data
When to stop fieldwork?
When you stop being surprisedCoverage
Of respondents / stakeholders Of activity of interest Of periods (e.g., seasons)
You run out of resources (time, money, …)
