Much of the value we add comes from years' of experience in observing REAL PEOPLE doing REAL THINGS in the REAL WORLD...this is often called Ethnography. The skill, experience and formal training for doing ethnography correctly is ALMOST NEVER found in-house; although, you may feel that it is. It would be an exceedingly rare organization that has qualified in-house ethnography expertise. See our postings on Ethnography by clicking the Ethnography category on the right of the screen.
So what does Ethnography look like?: The short answer is that it looks like real life. The photos that follow with accompanying commentary may help to communicate the different variations of Ethnography.
Click on images for larger views.
Passive Observation
This
photo illustrates a ‘passive observation’ (i.e. no interview) taken from an
ethnographic study of people and their automobiles. The woman is showing off
her classic Austin Mini in Dublin, Ireland.
Note: This particular photo is a re-enactment with a colleague standing in for the actual owner (no permission was obtained for public display of the original).
Artifact Review and Depth Interviewing
In
this illustration, the Subject is demonstrating the transfer of pictures from
her telephone to her computer. This particular artifact review is interesting
because there were lots of work-arounds the Subject had to invent to compensate
for a bad user interface.
Participant Observation (1 of 3)
Among Don Rickert Research & Design's product development
endeavors are a number of innovations having to do with violin enhancements,
particularly in the areas of teaching pitch discrimination to novice musicians
and restoring already-developed pitch discrimination for musicians with varying
degrees of hearing loss due to aging.
- This and the next two slides are from an
ongoing Ethnographic study of Violinists and Fiddlers
- These slides show an unusual level of
Participant Observation, as the Researcher (Don Rickert) is a skilled musician.
- The Informant, Rachel Caveness has kindly given her permission to publish these images. Rachel is a pianist, violinist, fiddler and bassist, who is in extremely high demand in North Georgia and North Carolina
Participant Observation (2 of 3)
This photo is from an ongoing Ethnographic study of rowers and rowing culture. The Informant, who is 79 years of age, is showing the Researcher his various rowing equipment, including work-arounds such as the large rear-view mirror he has installed on his cap. The mirror is to compensate for the fact that one faces backwards when rowing. Rowing a single shell requires constant head turning to see where one is going, which is quite difficult for a 79 year old.
Passive Observation of a Cultural Ritual
The previous photo illustrates passive observation of ritual that is very important to serious rowers, the unveiling and launch of a new boat.
Passive Observation of an Unsuccessful (and Dangerous) Work-Around
The previous photo, another passive observation, is interesting, as it shows
work-arounds gone awry.
The mud-puddle is marked with an iron bar stuck in the ground. The rowers carrying the ‘eight’ have ignored the puddle and the iron bar!
Making Due With the Recording Tools at Hand
These next two photos are shown to illustrate that you sometimes have to make due
when you see something interesting and don’t have your cameras.The
photos were taken with a camera phone that was still in its waterproof bag, as
the Researcher had just finished rowing.
(note:
the Researcher learned to row and joined a rowing team to allow use of the
powerful Participant Observation technique).
The Researcher's Rowing Team
This photo shows Dr. Don Rickert and the rowing team (and Coaches) that he joined in order to get access to the world of competitive rowing (which is VERY closed to "outsiders") as a Participant Observer. Rickert is in the very front and center with the white rowing shirt.
