Have ethnographer, (your company) will travel.

I wanted to share an informative article from the BBC that interviewed Jan Chipchase, principal researcher at Nokia Design on how he has used ethnographic insights to inform the design of mobiles.  His work includes bringing research teams into the actual cultural contexts of use in order to make better business decisions for Nokia.   

A multi-disciplinary team:

"Mr. Chipchase takes a team--designers, psychologists--into different countries around the world, to look at people's lives in different contexts."

Informing design:

"We do this research work to inform and inspire the design stage. To bring designers into the field so they know whom they are designing for."

Resulting in wiser business decisions, patents:

"To date, Mr. Chipchase has had two patents granted based on his work, and a further 25 are currently being considered."

To counter assumptions about the world (which we all have):

"It's also about what NOT to do with design.  We have lots of assumptions about hte world around us--Nokia is no different...if we want to remain relevant in all these markets we need to know how our assumptions differ from other people's."

The challenge for Nokia is expressed in terms of being able to produce something of value for different markets around the world, and addressing their numerous and oft-varied needs.

The particular skill that a trained ethnographer has in documenting these needs is the ability to distill kernels of relevance in a messy chaotic world.  "You see it every day but don't even notice."

At mobilemuse.ca, ethnographers like myself and Jean Hébert working with Richard Smith, continue to conduct research on mobile contexts of use--noticing the unnoticed.  We have also been using Techno-Experiential Design Assessment (TEDA) to inform these research projects.

On a related note, I'll be making a presentation (co-authored with Roman Onufrijchuk) on this combination of TEDA and ethnography at the Mobile Media 2007 conference in Sydney at the beginning of July.  Title: "Mobilizing methodology: the application of Techno-Experiential Design Assessment to global modes of communication." You can access the pdf of the abstracts here.