CS 594: Empirical Methods in HCC - PowerPoint Presentation

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CS 594: Empirical Methods in HCC

Ethnography & Contextual Inquiry

Dr. Debaleena ChattopadhyayDepartment of Computer Sciencedebchatt@uic.edudebaleena.comhci.cs.uic.edu

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AgendaEthnographyContextual DesignField Deployments

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Reading and Interpreting EthnographyWhat is Ethnography?Ethnography in Contemporary HCIAsking Questions of EthnographyGTM and EthnographyEthnomethodology

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What is Ethnography?Ethno = people, graphy = writingMost of you may come across ethnographic work in HCI, may read it, review it, or attempt to employ it. None of you—most probably—will ever actually attempt to conduct it.An approach to understanding cultural life that is founded not on witnessing but on participation, with the goal of understanding not simply what people are doing, but how they experience what they do.

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Example read (outside HCI)

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Roots of EthnographyEthnographic work is borrowed from anthropology and, to some extent, sociology.“Third wave” HCI—an approach that focuses on technology not so much in utilitarian terms but more in experiential ones—is warranting a reassessment of ethnographic methods and methodology.Timeline: 1910—1910: inquiry through participation and immersion1920s: focus on cultural life and became a characteristic of a form of sociological inquiry1960s: examinations of cultural life as an interpretive process1970s: study of culture changes from a “taxonomic” to “generative” view1980s: self-consciousness and self-awareness become important tools1990s: The field becomes less of a site to which an ethnographer might travel than a phenomenon that an ethnographer might seek to identify and explain

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Ethnography as a Methodology and MethodEthnography is data production rather than data gathering, in the sense that it is only the ethnographer’s presence in the field and engagement with the site—through action and interaction—that produces the data that is then the basis of analysis.Focus on the self: Self as an instrument of knowingEthnography’s primary method is participant-observation. The ethnographer is just another party to the scene.It is not simply what the ethnographer might see or hear, but also, e.g., what the ethnographer might feel; i.e., the discomforts, disquiets, joys, and anticipations, are data. Subject  participants collaborators

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Ethnography in Contemporary HCICommon concerns in HCI about ethnography:production of ethnographic data through participation and engagementsubjectivity and reflexivity as components of the research method, skepticism towards the boundedness of sitesinterpretive stance on the part of both researchers and participants.

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Exploring the common concernsEthnography and GeneralizationEthnographers argue that details matter, and so they resist forms of abstraction upon which much scientific generalization relies.juxtaposition, contradistinction, comparison, sequentiality, referentiality, resonance, and other ways of patterning across multiple observations.Ethnography and TheoryConceptual vs. empirical claimsExample analytic position is ethnomethodology

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Exploring the common concernsEthnography and DesignEthnographic work at the conceptual level may work best not by providing answers but by raising questions, challenging perceived understandings, giving silenced perspectives voice, and creating new conceptual understandings.conceptual reformulation is itself a basis for design thinkingEthnography and Cultural Analysisinteractive systems in contemporary society should be understood not simply as instrumental tools to be evaluated for their efficiency but as cultural objects to be understood in terms of the forms of expression and engagement that they engender.studying interactive systems anthropologically as sites of social and cultural production, in the sense of the generative (rather than taxonomic) reading of culture

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Asking Questions of EthnographyGood questionsWhat are this work’s empirical claims? What are this work’s conceptual claims?What was the context of production?How does this contribute to the corpus?Not so good questionsIs this a representative sample?How can you tell if what people told you is right?Didn’t you affect things by being there?What should I build now that I know this?

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Conversation Analysis (CA)Ethnomethodology: a method of sociological analysis that examines how individuals use everyday conversation and gestures to construct a common-sense view of the world.Chattopadhyay, D., Salvadori

, F., O’Hara, K., & Rintel, S. (2018). Beyond Presentation: Shared Slideware Control as a Resource for Collocated Collaboration. Human–Computer Interaction, 33(5-6), 455-498.

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Contextual DesignWhat is Contextual Design?Seeing WorkWork ModelsSeeing across users

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What is Contextual Design?Contextual Design was developed and continues to be driven by the realization that a product is always part of a larger practice, used in the context of other tools and manual processes to make the user’s overall life and work.Customer/User centered process for gathering user requirements and designing from themSeveral phases to the processContextual Inquiry Building Work modelsRedesigning the workSystem DesignPrototyping

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Contextual Inquiry (CI)Go where the user worksObserve the user as he/she worksTalk to the user about the work at the workplaceContextual Inquiry is the field data gathering technique of Contextual Design, which reveals the unconscious and tacit aspects of work and work practices.

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Seeing WorkMaster/apprentice model (Avoid interview/interviewee, expert/novice, guest/host)Avoid summary, watch them workAsk questions to understand the work practicesThe typical CI lasts 1½–2 hours and is based on four principles: Context, Partnership, Interpretation, Focus.

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Work ModelsFlow: communication and coordination necessaryArtifact: showing the physical things created to support the workCulture: constraints of policy, culture or valuesSequence: detailed work steps to achieve an intentPhysical: physical structure of the work environment

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Sequence Model

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Flow Model

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Cultural Model

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Field Deployments: Knowing from Using in ContextDeployment as an HCI Research MethodHow are field deployments different from experiments?Research Questions for Deployment StudiesHow to Do Deployment Studies

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Upcoming:Work on your course projects