Plus de sens et de mieux vivre ensemble
We have developed a method to facilitate the writing of hypothesis behind an ethnographic research.
In order to be able to integrate a new product into their daily life, people need to go through 7 steps. Read more about our 7 step stone methods (in French)
We infer hypothesis about the future usage of a product/service by thinking for each of these seven steps what will help or hinder a potential customer to use the product/service.
Here is the template to do this exercise
When we start a project, we could be tempted to run to the field to start our observations and interviews. But there is a risk to be too fast, namely « shooting next to the target » as one will not have thought through the project goals, what is at stake, etc.
Therefore, we advise to take a couple of hours to write down a project concept. Here is how it could look like.
Recruiting is NEVER easy! Here is an example of a recruitment letter we have used for one of our projects
Without guaranteeing confidentiality, one cannot interview or observe someone. How does an ethnographer secure confidentiality?
Here is an exemple of a confidentiality agreement we have used for a project at the EPFL (polytechnic federal school)
Ethnographers share a couple of tools with designers or at least provide the content to designers to fill out some of their work tools like personas, customer journeys maps, affinity diagrams, tasks analysis grids etc.
Here is an overview of designers tools.
«Aujourd’hui, les services sont très complexes et la phase de recette de ton service peut prendre plus d’un mois à cause des points qui risquent de ne pas fonctionner à l’implémentation. Aujourd’hui, ce temps de recette peut augmenter de façon exponentielle. On dit toujours, si tu trouves une erreur en phase de concept, ça coûte 1 Euro pour la résoudre ; en phase de design, 10 Euros ; en implémentation, 100 Euros. D’où l’importance de la user research en début de processus de conception pour définir tous les use cases possibles dès le départ. »
Christine Truc Modica, directeur de programme, Fjord, Paris, France
After interviews and observations have been done, an ethnographer retranscribes his notes.
Here is an exemple on how we have done it for a project with the EPFL (Polytechnic Federal School of Lausanne).
We have developed a method to facilitate the writing of hypothesis behind an ethnographic research.
In order to be able to integrate a new product into their daily life, people need to go through 7 steps. Read more about our 7 step stone methods (in French)
We infer hypothesis about the future usage of a product/service by thinking for each of these seven steps what will help or hinder a potential customer to use the product/service.
Here is the template to do this exercise
An ethnographer prepares an interview and observation guide before going onto the field. It is NOT a list of questions he will strictly go through, it is more a red thread he will navigate through.
Here is an exemple we used for a project at the EPFL (Polytechnic Federal School, Lausanne)
An interview and observation guide is based on a topic map, namely an overview of all the different important topics that will have to be covered during the interview or observations.
Check out an example of a topic map