Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection & Design Lucy A. Suchman & Randall H. Trigg

Lucy Suchman  Professor in the Centre for Science Studies and Sociology Department at Lancaster University in England.  Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley  Spent twenty years as a researcher at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).  Current research centers on the project of writing ethnographies of sites of technology production and use, and contributing to emerging reconceptualizations of social/material relations based in anthropology, feminist theory and science and technology studies. 

Randall H. Trigg  Consultant and researcher with Work Practice & Technology Associates  Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Maryland,  MA. in Mathematics, Cornell University,  B.A. with distinction in Mathematics and Computer Studies (double major), Northwestern University, 

Work as Situated Activity  Work activities take place at particular times, in particular places, and in relation to specific social and technological circumstances.  How do available technologies afford certain resources and constraints on how the work gets done?

Work Practice and Design  Fundamentally social; relies on mutually intelligible communication within a community  This sociality is what makes analyses of human interaction relevant to technology design

Design and Use  Designer’s perspective of working solution vs. the user’s perspective  Two related methods for research: 1. Ethnography: understand what participants themselves take to be relevant aspects of their activity 2. Interaction Analysis: interaction of people with each other and with the material environment

User Studies  Experimental control vs. in the field study of participants  Recording in the actual work setting: 1. Setting-oriented record 2. Person-oriented record 3. Object-oriented record 4. Task-oriented record

Activity Analysis  Generate content log of videotape  Construct collections: instances of interaction one wants to see as a class  Themes and categories arise from familiarity with the materials constantly reevaluated

Video as a Medium for Communication and Learning  Research: reflect on current practice  Design: envision future work practices and new technologies  Practice: designers work with users to better understand implications of prototypes and scenarios for new designs

Ethnographic Workflow Analysis: Specifications for Design Danielle Fafchamps

 VP Communications at ASTD (American Society for Training & Development)ASTD  Spent 10+ years leading the implementation of remote collaboration and information solutions for HP Strategic Partners  MA in the design and evaluation of innovative programs, and a multidisciplinary, self-designed PhD in socio-technological studies, both from Stanford University  MA in psychology and education from the University of Liege, Belgium

Ethnographic Workflow Analysis  Design methodology to study information- related behavior in the workplace  Paper discusses minimal conceptual framework and techniques for data collection and analysis

Challenges using Ethnography in R&D  Describes cultural and social patterns; not for the modeling of work patterns  Takes about a year in the field; need to deliver data in much shorter time  Ethnographers provide a description; engineers need concrete design specifications

Minimal Conceptual Framework  Professional Environments  Contexts of Work  Events  Patterns

Data Collection  Thinking Aloud  Guided Tour  Structured Observations  Written Artifacts  Focused Interviews

Data Analysis  Breakdowns  Series of Actions  Actions  Comments on Objects, Procedures  Descriptions

Shortcomings  Article doesn’t describe the transformation between ethnographic description and technical implementation