ABSTRACT
Ethnography has become a staple feature of IT research over the last twenty years, shaping our understanding of the social character of computing systems and informing their design in a wide variety of settings. The emergence of ubiquitous computing raises new challenges for ethnography however, distributing interaction across a burgeoning array of small, mobile devices and online environments which exploit invisible sensing systems. Understanding interaction requires ethnographers to reconcile interactions that are, for example, distributed across devices on the street with online interactions in order to assemble coherent understandings of the social character and purchase of ubiquitous computing systems. We draw upon four recent studies to show how ethnographers are replaying system recordings of interaction alongside existing resources such as video recordings to do this and identify key challenges that need to be met to support ethnographic study of ubiquitous computing in the wild.
- Barkhuus, L. et al. (2005) "Picking pockets on the lawn", Proc. of UbiComp '05, pp. 358--74, Tokyo: Springer. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Benford, S. et al. (2003) "Coping with uncertainty in a location-based game", IEEE Pervasive Computing, vol. 2 (3), pp. 34--41. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Benford, S. et al. (2004) "Uncle Roy All Around You", Proc. of ACE'04, Singapore: ACM.Google Scholar
- Benford, S. et al. (2004) "The error of our ways", Proc. of UbiComp'04, pp. 70-87, Nottingham, UK: Springer.Google Scholar
- Benford, S. et al. (2005) "Can You See Me Now?", to appear in ACM ToCHI. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Benford, S. et al. (2005) "Life on the edge", Proc. of CHI '05, pp. 721--730, Oregon: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Brown, B. et al. (2003) "Lessons from the lighthouse", Proc. of CHI'03, pp. 577--585, Florida: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bittner, E. (1973) "Objectivity and realism in sociology", Phenomenological Sociology (ed. Psathas, G.), pp. 109--125, New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
- Crabtree, A. et al. (2004) "Orchestrating a mixed reality game 'on the ground'", Proc. of CHI'04, pp. 391--398, Vienna: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Crabtree, A. (2004) "Design in the absence of practice", Proc. of DIS '04, pp. 59--68, Cambridge, MA: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Crabtree, A. (2005) "The social life of Uncle Roy", Equator Technical Report.Google Scholar
- Crabtree, A. and Rouncefield, M. (2005) "Working with text logs", Proc. of 1st International Conference on eSocial Science, Manchester: ESRC. www.mrl.nott.ac.uk/~axc/documents/eSS_2005.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Czyzewski, M. (1994) "Reflexivity of actors versus the reflexivity of accounts", Theory, Culture and Society, vol. 11, pp. 161--168.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Flintham, M. et al. (2003) "Where on-line meets on-the-streets", Proc. of CHI'03, pp. 569--576, Florida: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in Ethnomethodology, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
- Garfinkel, H. and Sacks, H. (1970) "On formal structures of practical action", Theoretical Sociology (eds. McKinney, J.C. and Tiryakian, E.), pp. 160--193, New York: Apple-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
- Garfinkel, H. (2001) Ethnomethodology's Program: Working Out Durkheim's Aphorism (ed. Rawls, A.), Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
- Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
- Hilbert, D. and Redmiles, D. (2000) "Extracting usability information from user interface events", ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 32 (4), pp. 384--421. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hughes, J., Randall, D. and Shapiro, D. (1992) "Faltering from ethnography to design", Proc. of CSCW '92, pp. 115--122, Toronto: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ivory, M. and Hearst, M. (2001) "The state of the art in automating usability evaluation", ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 33 (4), pp. 470--516. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kort, J. and de Poot, H. (2005) "Usage analysis: combining logging and qualitative methods", Proc. of CHI'05, pp. 2121--2122, Vienna: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lyotard, J-F. (1984) "The post modern condition", Theory and History of Literature, vol. 10, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
- Macbeth, D. (2001) "On'reflexivity' in qualitative research: two readings, and a third", Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 7, pp. 35--68.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mackay, W. and Beaudouin-Lafon, M. (1998) "DIVA", Proc. of CHI'98, pp. 416--423, Los Angeles: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ryle, G. (1971) "The thinking of thoughts", University Lectures No. 18, University of Saskatchewan: Canada.Google Scholar
- Sacks, H. (1992) "The baby cried. The mommy picked it up.", Lectures on Conversation (ed. Jefferson, G.), pp. 236--242, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
- Sharrock, W. and Anderson, R. (1991) "Epistemology", Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences (ed. Button, G.), pp. 51--76, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
- Suchman, L. (1987) Plans and Situated Action, Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
- Tolmie, P., Pycock, J., Diggins, T., Maclean, A. and Karsenty, A. (2002) "Unremarkable computing", Proc. of CHI'02, pp. 399--406, Minneapolis: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Woodruff, A. et al. (2002) "Practical strategies for integrating a conversation analyst in an iterative design process", Proc. of DIS '02, pp. 255--264, London: ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Supporting ethnographic studies of ubiquitous computing in the wild
Recommendations
Ubiquitous Computing: Are We There Yet?
The widespread deployment of technologies like mobile phones continues to drive new applications and to open research opportunities.
Wild food practices: understanding the wider implications for design and HCI
UbiComp '13 Adjunct: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing adjunct publicationEthnographic studies in their many forms have played a major role in informing the design and development of a multitude of systems, from pervasive games to ubiquitous systems that support market traders. This paper presents an alternative response to ...
Unremarkable computing
CHI '02: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsIn this paper, we seek to contribute to the Ubiquitous Computing agenda by focusing on one of its earliest, but most difficult, design ambitions - making technology "invisible in use". We draw on field studies of domestic life as this domain is becoming ...
Comments