1So what I'm going to talk about to you today is something called Ethnography.
2This is a type of research aimed at exploring the way human cultures work.
3It was first developed for use in anthropology,
4and it's also been used in sociology and communication studies.
5So what's it got to do with business, you may ask.
6Well, businesses are finding that ethnography can offer them deeper insight into the possible needs of customers,
7either present or future,
8as well as providing valuable information about their attitudes towards existing products.
9And ethnography can also help companies to design new products or services that customers really want.
10Let's look at some examples of how ethnographic research works in business.
11One team of researchers did a project for a company manufacturing kitchen equipment.
12They watched how cooks used measuring cups to measure out things like sugar and flour.
13They saw that the cooks had to check and recheck the contents,
14because although the measuring cups had numbers inside them,
15the cooks couldn't see these easily.
16So a new design of cup was developed to overcome this problem,
17and it was a top seller.
18Another team of ethnographic researchers looked at how cell phones were used in Uganda, in Africa.
19They found that people who didn't have their own phones could pay to use the phones of local entrepreneurs.
20Because these customers paid in advance for their calls,
21they were eager to know how much time they'd spent on the call so far.
22So the phone company designed phones for use globally with this added feature.
23Ethnographic research has also been carried out in computer companies.
24In one company, IT systems administrators were observed for several weeks.
25It was found that a large amount of their work involved communicating with colleagues in order to solve problems,
26but that they didn't have a standard way of exchanging information from spreadsheets and so on.
27So the team came up with an idea for software that would help them to do this.
28In another piece of research, a team observed and talked to nurses working in hospitals.
29This led to the recognition that the nurses needed to access the computer records of their patients,
30no matter where they were.
31This led to the development of a portable computer tablet
32that allowed the nurses to check records in locations throughout the hospital.
33Occasionally, research can be done even in environments where the researchers can't be present.
34For example, in one project done for an airline,
35respondents used their smartphones to record information during airline trips,
36in a study aiming at tracking the emotions of passengers during a flight.
37So what makes studies like these different from ordinary research?
38Let's look at some of the general principles behind ethnographic research in business.
39First of all, the researcher has to be completely open-minded -
40he or she hasn't thought up a hypothesis to be tested, as is the case in other types of research.
41Instead they wait for the participants in the research to inform them.
42As far as choosing the participants themselves is concerned,
43that's not really all that different from ordinary research -
44the criteria according to which the participants are chosen may be something as simple as the age bracket they fall into,
45or the researchers may select them according to their income,
46or they might try to find a set of people who all use a particular product, for example.
47But it's absolutely crucial to recruit the right people as participants.
48As well as the criteria I've mentioned,
49they have to be comfortable talking about themselves
50and being watched as they go about their activities.
51Actually, most researchers say that people open up pretty easily,
52maybe because they're often in their own home or workplace.
53So what makes this type of research special is that it's not just a matter of sending a questionnaire to the participants,
54instead the research is usually based on first-hand observation of what they are doing at the time.
55But that doesn't mean that the researcher never talks to the participants.
56However, unlike in traditional research,
57in this case it's the participant rather than the researchers
58who decides what direction the interview will follow.
59This means that there's less likelihood of the researcher imposing his or her own ideas on the participant.
60But after they've said goodbye to their participants and got back to their office,
61the researchers' work isn't finished.
62Most researchers estimate that 70 to 80 percent of their time is spent not on the collecting of data but on its analysis -
63looking at photos listening to recordings and transcribing them and so on.
64The researchers may end up with hundreds of pages of notes.
65And to determine what's significant, they don't focus on the sensational things or the unusual things,
66instead they try to identify a pattern of some sort in all this data,
67and to discern the meaning behind it.
68This can result in some compelling insights that can in turn feed back to the whole design process.