ETHNOGRAPHY

Madhusudan Atri

A workshop for students of the Srishti school of art, design and technology.

The Wi Fi story

The Nokia example

Ethnography is a study of people in their natural environment through observations and informal (less formal) interviews.

The art of ethnography

Be unassuming, be objective, bury your ideals and perspective.

Making observations is about being curious and using ALL FIVE SENSES.

All observations are relevant.

Get familiar with ad-hocs

The ethical and unethical

Be local, travel local. Be part of the experience.

Spend enough time. You are not going to get this opportunity again.And wear a watch.

You.

How?Research methods and tools

Context to…

Day in the life of…

Day in the life of…

…Specific

Benefit of trust and time

Day mapping 6 am

6 pm

7 am. Wake up, Run

8 am. Breakfast

1 pm. Lunch

4 pm. Walk in the park

8 pm. Spent time with family

10 pm. dinner

Home Visits

Best signs of aspirations

Artifacts

Shrine

important things stored

Granary

Granary

Curd

GODshelf

Lamp

Environment of your subject is truer than your subject.

Interviews

Listen and Snowball.

Don’t try to fill the void.

Research guides.

Photography

Photo Essay

Photo analysis

Analyse everything.

Guerilla/rapid ethnography

Quick methods.

Mood boards

Quick methods

Preparing for fieldwork!

Get a check list.Writing pad,

pen, recorder, camera(video too)

Consent formsResearch

guidesCalm yourself

Spatial maps

Importance of Demographic and macro data.

Field location

Demographics

Varied

Distance matters and not.

Respondents

Sample size

Choosing respondents

Local guides

Control

Guide’s perspective

Outliers

How is ethnography different from market research methods?

Holistic, Contextual and empirical

Dwells deeper

What people say is not what people do

Expensive, inconvenient, too much data

Ethnography applied in industry

Design – New product development, Interaction and human factors.

Innovation - Exploratory.

Advertising - Ideation.

Ethnography applied in industry

Market research and strategy. Policy Making. Understand systems.

END