Developing design ethnography interviewing competencies for novices

Michaela Grover; Natasha Wright; Jennifer Hoody; Carlye Lauff

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: DEED Technical Session 8 - Design Methodologies
Page Count: 21
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40839
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40839
Download Count: 363

Paper Authors

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Michaela Grover University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Michaela "Micki" Grover is a master's student studying product design at the University of Minnesota. She has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and three years of professional experience as a manufacturing engineer. Her research publication topics include microgrid electrical systems, inclusive design, and ethnographic interview methods. She has a special interest in toy design.

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Natasha Wright University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

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Jennifer Hoody University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Jennifer Hoody has experience and research interests centered on sustainable and global development with the goal to pursue a career centered at the intersection of environmental, climate, and social justice from an engineering mindset. Her past research focused on topics such as renewable energy, energy access, water desalination, human-centered design, and medical device development. She gained a passion for this field of work through her undergraduate research investigating energy reduction programs for underserved communities and through her research experience on solar brine management as a participant in a National Science Foundation research experience for undergraduates program. She earned her Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Dayton in 2020. In 2022, she received her MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley within the Energy, Civil Infrastructure, and Climate program. During her master’s program, she gained further experience conducting research and working with underserved communities on a local and national level. Jennifer will be beginning her PhD at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in the fall of 2022, where she plans to continue research focused on engineering for global and sustainable development, with specific interests in the water-energy-food nexus.

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Carlye Lauff University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

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Dr. Carlye Lauff is an Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow studying the role of prototypes in companies. Carlye’s research is in the field of Design Theory and Methodology, and she studies how designers engage in the product development process and then improves tools and methods to support them.

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Abstract

In design projects, ethnographic research techniques are used to generate a deep understanding of stakeholders’ needs in order to create a product or service that meets those needs. One common ethnographic research approach is semi-structured, direct-dialogue interviews. Ethnographic research methods, like interviewing, are essential for gathering accurate, in-depth qualitative data, yet most students tasked with gathering such data on design projects do so with little or no formal training. In response to this, an online design ethnography training program was developed and administered to students in the United States, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as part of a cross-country project. These students will use their training to create a service model to improve dialysis accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa.

The students involved in the study began as “novice” interviewers with little or no prior experience in conducting interviews. The training program introduced and exercised design ethnography research techniques, such as active and reflective listening, interviewing etiquette, question framing, and similar. In addition to the interviewing training, the students were exposed to topics on design thinking, empathy mapping, stakeholder mapping, participatory design, service design, and co-design. The training consisted of five virtual workshops, individual homework assignments, practice interviews, and personalized instructor feedback.

This leads us to the main research question for this work: How might we verify that novices have baseline competency for conducting ethnographic design interviews before engaging in interviews for the design project? Interviewing metrics were established through literature based on best practices, and then these metrics were structured to score the transcripts of the practice interviews in the training by the research team. The metrics were used to evaluate if a novice interviewer had reached a baseline competency of interviewing. The practice interviews were independently reviewed by two interviewing experts, and the final score was agreed upon by these experts. The training session brought all students to the skill level necessary for the research purposes of the Wright Lab.

The educational resources and structure in the training have prepared the students for uncovering unanticipated stakeholders, resources, and obstacles in the development of a kidney dialysis treatment system in sub-Saharan Africa. This application is an example of where ethnographic research can make a difference in complex design problems. When stakeholder circumstances are not fully understood, there is a higher chance that the solution presented will not actually meet their needs. The student participants are using their training to design a potential dialysis service model with the aim of increasing access to dialysis care in Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Citation
Format

Grover, M., & Wright, N., & Hoody, J., & Lauff, C. (2022, August), Developing design ethnography interviewing competencies for novices Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40839

TY - CPAPER
AB - In design projects, ethnographic research techniques are used to generate a deep understanding of stakeholders’ needs in order to create a product or service that meets those needs. One common ethnographic research approach is semi-structured, direct-dialogue interviews. Ethnographic research methods, like interviewing, are essential for gathering accurate, in-depth qualitative data, yet most students tasked with gathering such data on design projects do so with little or no formal training. In response to this, an online design ethnography training program was developed and administered to students in the United States, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as part of a cross-country project. These students will use their training to create a service model to improve dialysis accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa.

The students involved in the study began as “novice” interviewers with little or no prior experience in conducting interviews. The training program introduced and exercised design ethnography research techniques, such as active and reflective listening, interviewing etiquette, question framing, and similar. In addition to the interviewing training, the students were exposed to topics on design thinking, empathy mapping, stakeholder mapping, participatory design, service design, and co-design. The training consisted of five virtual workshops, individual homework assignments, practice interviews, and personalized instructor feedback.

This leads us to the main research question for this work: How might we verify that novices have baseline competency for conducting ethnographic design interviews before engaging in interviews for the design project?
Interviewing metrics were established through literature based on best practices, and then these metrics were structured to score the transcripts of the practice interviews in the training by the research team. The metrics were used to evaluate if a novice interviewer had reached a baseline competency of interviewing. The practice interviews were independently reviewed by two interviewing experts, and the final score was agreed upon by these experts. The training session brought all students to the skill level necessary for the research purposes of the Wright Lab.

The educational resources and structure in the training have prepared the students for uncovering unanticipated stakeholders, resources, and obstacles in the development of a kidney dialysis treatment system in sub-Saharan Africa. This application is an example of where ethnographic research can make a difference in complex design problems. When stakeholder circumstances are not fully understood, there is a higher chance that the solution presented will not actually meet their needs. The student participants are using their training to design a potential dialysis service model with the aim of increasing access to dialysis care in Uganda and Zimbabwe.

AU - Michaela Grover
AU - Natasha Wright
AU - Jennifer Hoody
AU - Carlye Lauff
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Developing design ethnography interviewing competencies for novices
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40839
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40839
ER -