Dear all,
I am a Portuguese PhD anthropologist who was recently approached by a Portuguese technology department (http://www2.inescporto.pt) to submit a post-doctoral grant in the area of technological innovation.
As a trained anthropologist, it would make sense to me to submit a post-doctoral grant in the area of ethnography and user-experience. My original PhD in anthropology did not bear on any issues of design, so I am very aware that just by adventuring into a new theme at post-doctoral level while starting the readings of many people in this list I am, very likely, taking in more than I can chew.
I would like to tell you what interests me in this area and ask people in this list for some help, references and suggestions. Please forgive me if the questions I am about to put are somehow beneath the level of expertise of those who use this list as a forum.
I am already fairly familiar with the writings on design ethnography by most of my anthropological peers. However the question I am particularly interested in is how methodological theory in ethnography can be rendered more systematic for thinking issues of user experience. How do we, as anthropologists, using methods that are predominantly inductive, such as classic ethnographic approaches, collect and interpret data that is relevant for the study of user-experience? Are there better ways of rendering systematic anthropologists’ predominant use of induction in ethnographic data collection? Would/could a methodological systematization of inductive processes in design ethnography practices be of any use for grasping user-experience?
I wonder if these questions seem relevant to you from a designer’s perspective. I also wonder if you could please point me to any philosophers of science who have reflected on ethnography as method, in particular in its relation to design.
I look forward to any help or comments I can get.
Yours sincerely,
Pedro Oliveira
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