Evolution of Field Research

Tracy Lovejoy is an Ethnographer at Microsoft. Her job is to do in-depth research on whole segments of existing/potential user populations. Her research is different from typical usability testing in that usability testing looks at a user's behavior in an artificial setting, doing artificial tasks, using tools with which he/she may not be familiar. An ethnographer may go into the user's environment and gather information about the user's world for the purpose defining a culture. There may or may not even be a design-related goal for the research. She at times collects information just to learn more about a group such as the 'active aging' population (new industry term for the elderly population).

She uses a number of tools and techniques, some of which we use and some we don't (but might be valuable). Some examples:

• focus groups
• site visits
• shadowing/observation
• journals/diaries
• longitudinal studies
• collage of technology

I found Tracey's talk interesting because her research is very relevant to those of us in a design-oriented UCD group but she tackles her research from a different perspective. She typically doesn't launch a study to solve a specific design problem. Her research is focused on discovering the relevant information about a population that could impact the way they use Microsoft products. Often, the outcome or product of these studies are personas which appeared to be used extensively throughout Microsoft.

I would like to see our group do more of these observational type studies. From past experience, I've always found them to be worthwhile efforts releaving some nuggets of insight into the users' world that I hadn't expected. The downside is that they can be very time consuming and are highly qualitative.