Field notes, for the ethnographically uninitiated, are detailed descriptions of field work (interviews with and observations of people). Contrary to what the name suggests, field notes are not actually taken in the field while we are interviewing and observing people. Rather, while we are in the field we take scratch notes. In our scratch notes … Continue reading »
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Quantitative: The First Patterns of Play Data Visualization
Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived! The first data visualization of Plant Wars player interactions is finished! The data used in this visualization tracked Plant Wars in-game banking transactions, of which there are several varieties. A player can deposit money into a bank, transfer it to another player, … Continue reading »
Now, For Some Robots
In case I hadn’t bombarded you with enough content today, or in case you happened to be someone in my audience who could not care less about design ethnography (I suspect there are some of you out there), I offer you something new and completely different to investigate: my review of Machinarium. I love Machinarium; … Continue reading »
Ethnography and the Bleedy Edge: Living in the Gray (Coping with Uncertainty)
I’m sure you’ve heard the cliche that the world isn’t black and white. This is true. And if you want to be a design ethnographer, you’d best get accustomed to living in the gray. Living in the gray is a balancing act, which involves, among many other things: standing with one foot in the world … Continue reading »
Ethnography and the Bleedy Edge: How to Deal With Useless People
In an ideal world, we would only work with people we wanted to work with. Teams would be perfectly composed of people with complementary skillsets and compatible personalities. Everyone would be honest about their committment to a project, forthcoming about other demands on their time and energy, and considerate of the needs and feelings of … Continue reading »
Ethnography and The Bleedy Edge: Agile Deliverable Production and the Death of Perfectionism
Windows Movie Maker wouldn’t let me choose arbitrary starting and ending points for panning across a document. How frustrating: I wanted to be able to pan across our interview guides in a very specific way. No sweat, I thought. I will just switch to the studio Mac and use iMovie. In that instant, that split … Continue reading »
Pointing: Sparks and Catastrophic Comics
So, ages ago, when I still lived in a warm climate and had a car to drive, I heard a little radio piece on NPR about motion comics for the iPhone. It sounded suitably neat, so I investigated. Catastrophic Comics is producing Sparks, a noir superhero semi-animated thing which you can view on your iphone. … Continue reading »
The Examined Blog: Contemplating Roles in the Blogosphere
Hang on to your hats, folks, we’re about to get all meta up on this shit. This semester, the lovely Alicia and Kate took a deep ethnographic dive into the blogosphere. As flatmate, friend, sharer of memory foam mattress goodness, I got a firsthand look at their project as it developed. If you want a … Continue reading »
Great Idea: Genetic Algorithms for Recipes
I actually think a genetic algorithm for recipes is BRILLIANT, and I think I have figured out how to implement it, relatively simply (read: ghetto-rig it). Now, I don’t think you could use it to come up with really detailed recipes, but I think you can use this approach to come up with ideas, or … Continue reading »
Field Notes: Microwaveability QMB Staff Lounge Observations
On Thursday from 12 pm to 1:30 pm, I observed various individuals interacting with the microwave in the staff lounge in the Queen Mother Building on the University of Dundee campus. The staff lounge is a bright room with a southern exposure on the third floor of the Queen Mother building. The southern wall, composed … Continue reading »
