field studies and ethnographic methods Articles & Videos

  • User-Ecosystem Thinking: An Anthropologic Approach to Design

    The NN/g UX Podcast featured coauthors Mike Youngblood and Ben Chesluk, who are challenging the traditional, outdated model of “users” in UX.

  • Field Studies

    Field research is conducted in the user’s natural setting. Learn the unexpected by leaving the office and observing people in their normal environments.

  • Context Methods: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about ethnographic research methods like field studies and diary studies.

  • 27 Tips and Tricks for Conducting Successful User Research in the Field

    Leave your office and go where the users are. Learn about common pitfalls and how to avoid them from our experience.

  • Remote Contextual Inquiry: Lessons Learned

    Contextual inquiry can be conducted remotely for certain types of tasks, provided that your participants can share most of their work setting through a video-call platform.

  • Why Field-Study Sessions Go Wrong: 5 Common Problems

    Stay focused and avoid long complaint sessions during a field study by communicating the purpose of the visit early on, maintaining the partnership relationship with participants, and looking for concrete examples over abstract generalizations.

  • When to Use Context Methods: Field and Diary Studies

    Context methods provide an understanding of users’ real-life settings and behaviors. They inform the design of products and services.

  • Complex Application Design: A 5-Layer Framework

    Various contexts of complexity should be considered by UX designers and researchers designing complex applications, including complexities of integration, information, intention, environment, and institution.

  • Field Studies Should Inform Intranet Redesign

    Observing users in their natural work context unveils mismatches between users’ and designers’ mental models and builds empathy with end users.

  • Avoid Leading Questions to Get Better Insights from Participants

    In user research, the facilitator's choice of words can affect the participants' feedback or behavior.

  • Field Studies Done Right: Fast and Observational

    Field studies should emphasize the observation of real user behavior. Simple field studies are fast and easy to conduct, and do not require a posse of anthropologists: All members of a design team should go on customer visits.