A critical component of our research work is ethnographic based user studies. Ethnography is the systematic study of people and culture. We employ ethnography based user research to understand how scientists use existing applications for data management, analysis and visualization. Ethnographic research involves a researcher observing the community from the point of view of the subject of the study and usually results in a case study or field report.
In our project, we use the knowledge to help to design easy-to-use usable data management software for exascale workflows that can balance abstraction and transparency of the optimization choices that the user might need to make when using next-generation hardware and software infrastructure. We believe that early insights from our user research can benefit the community and will use this blog to disseminate these results.
Why ethnography based user studies?
In order to better understand users’ work and work practices in context, we will be conducting contextual inquiries with our users, which involve both interviews and observations of work occurring in its actual environment. While work is the set of tasks used to accomplish work goals, work practices comprise all the patterns of tasks, norms, communication, and routines used to carry out this work (Hartson and Pyla, 2012).
Interviews alone are not enough to uncover this level of knowledge. Many details may be implicit or deemed unimportant or uninteresting by the users during an interview. In addition, users’ opinions are often shaped by the limitations of existing tools. Observing work done in context allows us to gain a less biased view of existing work practices.
Our goal is to not only understand the various tasks used to carry out users’ work, but to uncover the intentions and strategies hidden in this observable work and to integrate knowledge spread across various users to get a unified understanding of these work practices. This knowledge will enable us to design a system that supports users’ work practices and improve their effectiveness.
References
Rex Hartson and Pardha Pyla. 2012. The UX Book: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience (1st ed.). Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA.
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