23030010, Hammad Javed

Critique: Rapid Ethnography

The author, David R. Millen, is trying to convey the idea of a methodology devised for
time efficient HCI field research referred to as rapid ethnography. The three key ideas of
technique are the following:
1. Having a focused research area with narrowed down questions and having key
informants who can better assist researchers with finding patterns and useful
insights within the time constraints.
2. Use of multiple interactive observation techniques to maximize the insights
gained from time spent in the research field. Having more than one researcher,
observation at peak activity time, structured interviews etc. are some examples of
such techniques.
3. Using better collaborative and computer assisted analysis methods. Use of
software tools for analysis of large amount of field data can be time saving. To
better understand the field data and convey it to rest of the organization,
methods like pictorial storytelling, causal maps, scenario analysis can prove to be
really handy.
The author, David R. Millen with over ten thousand citations on his research work, is a
distinguished professor at tufts university and a well reputed name in the field of HCI and
Social Computing. He is currently the senior research scientist at IBM having spent over
20 years at IBM in the R&D department. That makes him very well qualified and
resourceful to conduct research in the respective field.
One thing that I found really appealing is the practical nature of his work. The author not
only gave a theoretical description of his proposed methodology but also backed his
methodology by providing a detailed case study conducted using the proposed strategy.
He highlighted and pin pointed where and how each key idea from the methodology has
been used in the case study. This really help readers clarify any confusions that might
have left behind after reading the theoretical description of the method. In particular the
causal maps he showed in the case study section were vital in building a better
understanding.
However, there are a few points on which I would disagree with author a. Firstly, the use
of wide-angle focus for field research is termed problematic. In my opinion there maybe
instances where its use for field research is inevitable. These can be situations where the
project at hand is very large scale and requires a lot of observations and rich datasets
from the field in order to determine a pattern or user behavior. Secondly, the author
discussed how having more than one researcher can benefit the research process. But
on the flip side, if we have multiple researchers out in the field, then in turn we are going
to have varying perspectives on observations and behaviors and so we need a conflict
resolution mechanism in order to arrive at a consensus on the design requirement.
All in all, I would say that the strategy proposed by author is a really valid one (except for
the few concerns discussed above) backed by its practical implications as shown by the
case study. This technique can prove to be pivotal in the way HCI research is conducted
as more and more time constraint challenges are being faced by the ethnographer
researchers.