{"id":9980,"date":"2014-11-04T11:21:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T19:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=9980"},"modified":"2020-10-26T15:56:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T22:56:46","slug":"participant-observation-web-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/needmoredesigns.com\/participant-observation-web-design\/","title":{"rendered":"On Anthropology and Web Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before migrating to web design a decade ago, I spent a good amount of time studying Cultural Anthropology. This is a sweet discipline for those that are interesting in storytelling and culture. While web design and Anthropology may seem to be worlds apart, there are in fact a surprising number of similarities in goals and methodology.<\/p>\n

\"Salt<\/p>\n

Anthropologists utilize\u00a0qualitative research, a method that is focused on getting a sense of why<\/em> people do what they do. This can help us understand how people relate to the products and brands we are helping to promote, helping us to\u00a0answer questions such as: Why would someone stand in line for an hour for an ice cream?<\/em>\u00a0or What sets a particular coffee roaster or baker\u00a0from their contemporaries, what is their unique story?<\/em><\/p>\n

Remarkable design flows from having a deep understanding of a brand. Anthropologist have built up stellar tools for understanding culture over the years. We\u00a0can draw\u00a0from these techniques and apply them to the brands and products we design for.<\/p>\n

Participant Observation<\/h2>\n

Cultural Anthropologists use Participant\u00a0Observation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Its aim is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, sub cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their cultural environment…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happily, we can use these tools as well.<\/p>\n

\"personas\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Participant Observation\u00a0is a\u00a0way of learning about a culture, involving both observing<\/em> and participating<\/em>. As web designers, we actually have the observing part down pretty well; In a typically web design discovery phase, we already have a number of tools aimed at understanding brands and website needs, such as client surveys and communication briefs. \u00a0From these come personas (ideas of who might use the website) and what their goals and paths might be.<\/p>\n

The are valuable tools. However, they can often fail to give us a deep understanding of a brand. This is because they lack the\u00a0participation <\/em>piece, which can be tougher, but also leads to the most individual observation.<\/p>\n

There are 5 simple tools<\/strong> that anthropologists use in Participant Observation that are helpful to web designers and each can be used alone or as a group.<\/p>\n

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\n1. Direct Observation.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This means getting out and interacting directly with a brand. In any way that you can, experience your client’s product first-hand.<\/p>\n