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Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection & Design. Lucy A. Suchman & Randall H. Trigg. Lucy Suchman. Professor in the Centre for Science Studies and Sociology Department at Lancaster University in England.
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Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection & Design Lucy A. Suchman & Randall H. Trigg
Lucy Suchman • Professor in the Centre for Science Studies and Sociology Department at Lancaster University in England. • Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley • Spent twenty years as a researcher at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). • Current research centers on the project of writing ethnographies of sites of technology production and use, and contributing to emerging reconceptualizations of social/material relations based in anthropology, feminist theory and science and technology studies. • http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/lsuchman.html
Randall H. Trigg • Consultant and researcher with Work Practice & Technology Associates • Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Maryland, 1983. • MA. in Mathematics, Cornell University, 1977. • B.A. with distinction in Mathematics and Computer Studies (double major), Northwestern University, 1975. • http://www.workpractice.com/trigg/
Work as Situated Activity • Work activities take place at particular times, in particular places, and in relation to specific social and technological circumstances. • How do available technologies afford certain resources and constraints on how the work gets done?
Work Practice and Design • Fundamentally social; relies on mutually intelligible communication within a community • This sociality is what makes analyses of human interaction relevant to technology design
Design and Use • Designer’s perspective of working solution vs. the user’s perspective • Two related methods for research: • Ethnography: understand what participants themselves take to be relevant aspects of their activity • Interaction Analysis: interaction of people with each other and with the material environment
User Studies • Experimental control vs. in the field study of participants • Recording in the actual work setting: • Setting-oriented record • Person-oriented record • Object-oriented record • Task-oriented record
Activity Analysis • Generate content log of videotape • Construct collections: instances of interaction one wants to see as a class • Themes and categories arise from familiarity with the materials constantly reevaluated
Video as a Medium for Communication and Learning • Research: reflect on current practice • Design: envision future work practices and new technologies • Practice: designers work with users to better understand implications of prototypes and scenarios for new designs
Ethnographic Workflow Analysis: Specifications for Design Danielle Fafchamps
Danielle Fafchamps • VP Communications at ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) • Spent 10+ years leading the implementation of remote collaboration and information solutions for HP Strategic Partners • MA in the design and evaluation of innovative programs, and a multidisciplinary, self-designed PhD in socio-technological studies, both from Stanford University • MA in psychology and education from the University of Liege, Belgium
Ethnographic Workflow Analysis • Design methodology to study information-related behavior in the workplace • Paper discusses minimal conceptual framework and techniques for data collection and analysis
Challenges using Ethnography in R&D • Describes cultural and social patterns; not for the modeling of work patterns • Takes about a year in the field; need to deliver data in much shorter time • Ethnographers provide a description; engineers need concrete design specifications
Minimal Conceptual Framework • Professional Environments • Contexts of Work • Events • Patterns
Data Collection • Thinking Aloud • Guided Tour • Structured Observations • Written Artifacts • Focused Interviews
Data Analysis • Breakdowns • Series of Actions • Actions • Comments on Objects, Procedures • Descriptions
Shortcomings • Article doesn’t describe the transformation between ethnographic description and technical implementation