1.
Digital Ethnography for
Social Interaction Design
BRYNN M. EVANS ● BRYNNEVANS.COM

2.
Social issues underlying “non-social”
problems

3.
Things get trickier
online!

4.
Social Interaction
Design

5.
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2010/01/24/vision-board/

6.
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2010/01/24/vision-board/

7.
Society ● Culture ● Personalities ● Past history ● Compassion
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2010/01/24/vision-board/
Reputation ● Trust ● Conversations ● Emotion ● Location

8.
Where to begin?
SXDSALON.ORG
❝ It’s the interactions among
users that informs design
❞
Adrian Chan
http://gravity7.com
Photo by: Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com

9.
Where to begin?
SXDSALON.ORG
❝ It’s the interactions among
users that informs design
❞
Adrian Chan
http://gravity7.com
❝ Interpreting human interactions as
though they originated from a
bunch of crazy space monkeys.
❞
Jenny Ryan
http://jennyryan.net
Photo by: Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com

10.
Where to begin?
SXDSALON.ORG
❝ It’s the interactions among
users that informs design
❞
Adrian Chan
http://gravity7.com
❝ Interpreting human interactions as
though they originated from a
bunch of crazy space monkeys.
❞
orly?
Jenny Ryan
http://jennyryan.net
Photo by: Kenneth Yeung - www.thelettertwo.com

11.
0.2

12.
Spectrum of SxD
P2P Community Social Space
•between individuals •within a community •where others have
come before
•Aardvark, Twitter •IxDA SF, Twitter
•Wikipedia, Twitter

13.
Aardvark
(@vark)

14.
Aardvark
(@vark)
Asking

15.
Aardvark
(@vark)
Answering

16.
Aardvark
(@vark)
Answering
❶ hurried and distracted on-the-go
may know where to look, but
❷ have to search for the full
answer
❸ hard to have a conversation
not enough relationship
❹ information

17.
Why digital ethnography?
❶ hard to recreate social interactions
in the lab
❷ social interactions unfold over time
❸ social interactions are best

18.
Research

19.
Immersion
Public by Default, Private when
by danah boyd
Photo by: Compound Eye http://www.flickr.com/photos/paopix/244067624/

20.
Experience Sampling
http://www.globaluserresearch.com/blog/2010/01/user-experience-sampling-twitter

21.
Experience Sampling
+ +
http://www.globaluserresearch.com/blog/2010/01/user-experience-sampling-twitter

22.
Experience Sampling
+ +
Questions:
•What are you doing with your
smartphone now? (Or, what was the
most recent did with your smartphone? When?)
activity you
•What was the specific purpose of that activity?
•Please describe the situation around you at
that time.
•What inconvenience did you have? To improve
your smartphone experience, what do you
expect?
http://www.globaluserresearch.com/blog/2010/01/user-experience-sampling-twitter

23.
Experience Sampling
+ +
Results:
•70% of experiences reported were
DMs (587 msgs)
•60 opinions per design issue
(theme)
•each theme discussed for 5+
hours
•great for longer-term, in-depth
experience collection
http://www.globaluserresearch.com/blog/2010/01/user-experience-sampling-twitter

24.
Crowdsourced surveys
Critical incident survey:
1. When was the last
5. What prompted you to
time you searched for
perform the search?
information?
6. What steps did you take
2. What were you looking
to find the information?
for?
7. What did you do just after
3. What were you doing
you searched?
just before you
searched? 8. If other people were
nearby, were they
4. Did you talk with
influencing your search
anyone before you
process?
searched?
Consider also:
• writing the survey with different user perspectives
• giving the survey continuously thru development/
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7979048@N06/2384754603/

25.
Beyond Data
Collection

26.
Personas
Conferring Carl
Always confers with partners first;
then continues the search alone.
Prefers to go-it-alone until she
gets stuck; only seeks help
from others after trying all
options.
Persistent Peggy
PHOTOS BY FORACHANCE.WORDPRESS.COM, COOLEY.DEVIANTART.COM, POSIXELENI, R. STEPHEN RAINWATER

27.
Design Comics
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22133391/Papel-the-Paper-Cup

28.
Bodystorming
Background: The goal of this bodystorming (play-acting) exercise was
to bring awareness to the issues with non-recyclable paper
cups and coffee culture.
http://www.vimeo.com/5968946

29.
Bodystorming
Background: The goal of this bodystorming (play-acting) exercise was
to bring awareness to the issues with non-recyclable paper
cups and coffee culture.
http://www.vimeo.com/5968946

30.
More Stuff
SxD
http://sxdsalon.org
http://www.gravity7.com/blog/media/2010/02/google-buzz-v-twitter-more-
on-micro.html
http://www.slideshare.net/willevans/designing-sociality-in-networked-
publics
Digital Ethnography
http://jennyryan.net/musings/2009/03/reflections-on-writing-a-digital-
ethnography/
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2010/02/04/remote-research-for-sxd/
User Testing on Mechanical Turk
http://brynnevans.com/blog/2010/02/11/user-testing-on-mechanical-
turk-how-to/

31.
Thanks URF!