Abstract

Dourish, P. (2006). Implications for Design. In Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2006 (Montreal, Canada).

Available online at: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/publications/2006/implications-chi2006.pdf

Original abstract: Although ethnography has become a common approach in HCI research and design, considerable confusion still attends both ethnographic practice and the criteria by which it should be evaluated in HCI . Often, ethnography is seen as an approach to field investigation that can generate requirements for systems development; by that token, the major evaluative criterion for an ethnographic study is the implications it can provide for design. Exploring the nature of ethnographic inquiry, this paper suggests that implications for design may not be the best metric for evaluation and may, indeed, fail to capture the value of ethnographic investigations.

Rubric for the reading group: Everyone attending is expected to read the paper in advance. Please bring a copy with you, preferably annotated with interesting reflections. The format of discussion will be a brief invited introduction/critique by two members of the group, followed by general discussion and informal mixing.