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Unintended Uses

Spent today at the Fieldwork Untethered workshop here in Tokyo. The aim is to brain-dump knowledge of the different methodologies used to collect user data outside the laboratory environment. Today's presentations were informed - and as much as anything I like listening to the language people use to describe stuff you've been working on, but haven't yet figured out how to best capture in those few words. With a background in UI design the language of sociologists and psychologists takes some getting used to. One of the aims of the workshop is to publish more about the methods we use to gather data - maybe that's the right forum to go into detail about the things I've started to cover here?

The workshop included some field research in and around Shibuya. Spent 10 minutes watching the Shibuya crossing street hustlers - tanned, preening men chasing after women trying to entice them to host-bars that are surprisingly popular here (apparently - I've never been and I guess I'm too old, unsophisticated and ugly to be hired as a host). There's a pecking order on the street and the competition is fierce to be the first to confront the single women as they go past. Its pretty unsophisticated stuff, but what can I learn from them?

The laptop photos are of one of the workshop delegates - a simple example of how objects used in the real world have unintended uses.

Hmm, collecting this kind of data at a ethno methods workshop is the equivalent of distilling then swigging vodka at a alcoholics anonymous meeting. Smart.

Writing from Mita | November 2, 2005 | Permalink