Sunday, February 9, 2014

Wayfinding: Ethnography Articles

After reading the ethnography articles, I definitely have a better understanding of design-focused research, how it should work, its goals and outcomes. Ethnography focuses on people’s needs through observation of their daily lives. Its true, as was noted in the article, that what people say they do isn’t what they truly do. So observation of what they truly do is important, and you can’t get that in a testing facility where you simply ask someone questions that they can exaggerate the truth on. When my doctor asks if I eat healthy and balanced meals I always say yes, and lets be honest I eat way too much pizza for that to be the case. 
The articles emphasized observation, casual conversation and asking the right questions of the subjects to identify their norms, situations and problems. Then through analysis the ethnographer can seek trends and possible solutions to those problems. 

I liked that these articles helped me outline what my group needs to research in our wayfinding project. They act as a step by step guide to lead us in the right direction for meaningful research that will develop truly valuable, useful outcomes.

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