A few weeks ago I attended an event that focused on service design, and offered an opportunity for a small group of people to share experiences and thoughts on this growing field of design. A conversation arose around changing career paths, how experience translates into new areas of work, and what transferable skills apply to working within service design.
This made me think about the evolving field of design ethnography, and its roots in anthropology. Many of us studying and working in DE do not have this background, but what else can we bring to the field?
Speaking to the rest of our class, it is clear that we all bring a complex and diverse personality to each project. My own experience and knowledge is mainly based in design – interaction and graphic design, but like many other people I’ve had a myriad of jobs and experiences that contribute to the way I work. As we are hoping to practice DE in the near future, I think it’s important that we consider how these transferable skills could influence and shape this evolving field.
For me, being educated and working in ‘design’ has had a huge impact on my thinking and my methods, in relation to how I approach a problem. There are numerous debates and opinions on ‘thinking creatively’ or ‘design thinking’ that it’s not relevant to discuss here and now, but from my own experience, the design process in practice is an extremely valuable tool in understanding and thinking differently about any type of problem. Of course the design process is not something that can be so easily defined, and when I make this statement I’m referring to the overarching principles that exist within all areas of design, from service to product to system. Different disciplines certainly have different approaches, but the thinking and understanding involved in each of their processes is similar.
Seeing things differently
Going back to the conversation that provoked this thinking, one contributor noted that naïvety can be an advantage when it comes to approaching a problem. In the same way that we as ethnographers attempt to see the world (or a part of the world) through a different lens, it can also be true that as a newcomer to a certain field, we come with fresh eyes. Seeing a problem, or a culture, or a person in a different light often uncovers insight that is invisible to an experienced eye. I like to think about it as similar to the familiarity we might have with our own homes. When you live in a place for a long time, you stop seeing the objects around you, as they almost become part of your plane of vision. You stop noticing the details and shifts that a visitor would immediately pick up on. In the same way, when methods become familiar, we lose the precision in practicing them that once made them magical.
The flip side of this argument is that experience brings a type of sensitivity to a subject, and an understanding of what is relevant and important. In particular, when it comes to filtering data or finding opportunities from insights. Expertise in a certain field is an invaluable asset, one that provides the knowledge required to become natives in the land that we practice. Those finding their feet and exploring this land could be compared to tourists; if they find the right local to ask for directions, they’ll discover the hidden streets and unspoken treasures that make the place special. In the same way we can all learn from the masters of our ‘craft’.
And so what about a compromise? Where is the middle ground when it comes to navigating your way through an industry? A common ‘tool’ in design is intuition – a skill that many believe cannot be learned. In Design Anthropology, Jane Fulton Suri suggests that “design and innovation are creative endeavours that defy entirely rational and linear processes. Human intelligence, skill and leaps of imagination are required to grapple with multiple variables and uncertainties to make future sense”.
This idea of ‘intuition’ could be a boundary between the naïve approach and the experienced approach. Finding that boundary and remaining on the thin line is a balancing act; some may learn it, some may possess it already but we can always improve it through practice.
When we observe, question and try to understand people and cultures, our interpretations of what we’ve uncovered are what leads us to potential opportunities. Interpreting is a personal, almost ‘bespoke’ skill whereby experience, mood, naïvety and many other factors influence what we, as individuals, find meaningful and interesting. And that’s our intuition. In some respects this is the one skill that we can all have – beginner’s and professionals alike.
So what can we as explorers of design ethnography, take from this? Yes, anthropological theory and practice has an integral role in defining this emerging practice, but we can also look to other disciplines to establish a diverse toolkit of methods. On a wider level this becomes relevant when applying for jobs after university, moving into a new industry or career path, and even when starting a new project and working in a new team of people. In a ‘problem space’ multi-disciplinary working can bring new perspectives and often a synergy that does not exist when working alone. All of us bring knowledge and expertise in one field, and are learning to have alongside that a broad empathy towards other skills and disciplines. More than anything, design has taught me to have trust in the experience and intuition that drives our thinking.
Fiona McGowan
http://strangesparks.co.uk
@strangesparks
This is an interesting thought and I am especially intrigued by your explanation of “‘intuition’ as a boundary between the naïve approach and the experienced approach.” We often talk about this idea of having an insider’s perspective but being able to look at it with fresh eyes. And it is a balancing act I think, and I do think that with experience (practice) we can improve our balance, but I think finding that balance always depends on the conditions of your challenge.
So even if you have practiced this balancing act, each situation is different and I think no matter what our approach is, we are affected by these other factors such as (to stick with our balancing-analogy) wind direction, weather, location, our personal mood that day and so on and so on.
We can learn the basic skill set and some methods to guide us, but we can’t always control the situation, and this I think is one of the challenges for the Design Ethnographer in the field. This is where the above quote from Jane Fulton Suri makes sense: ” Human intelligence, skill and leaps of imagination are required to grapple with multiple variables and uncertainties to make future sense”. With a combination of all those skills and an understanding that there will always be uncertainties, we can undertake the process of gathering and making sense of data.
Intuition is a great topic – and I would add alongside that serendipity, the role of chance. If there is one thing I think the ‘interpretavist’ stance gives us it’s a lack of fear of intuition and serendipity
And yet I always worry about ideas like ‘intuition’. Collins defines intuition as ‘knowledge or belief obtained neither by reason nor by perception; or instinctive knowledge or belief; or a hunch or unjustified belief; or immediate knowledge of a proposition or object such as Kant’s account of our knowledge of sensible objects’. Intuition, and experience for that matter, do not address the core problem of ‘validating’ or ‘warranting’ our conclusions. One ethnographer’s ‘intuition as openness to following new ideas’ maybe another’s ‘intuition as easy and / or quick answer’.
For me what’s really important is our commitment to being both reflective and reflexive – i.e. to reflect deeply on our ideas themselves and to reflexively query how we ourselves have contributed to their birth through our experience, intuition, biases, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, etc. Wherever an idea comes from – hard science experiment, rigorous data mining, discussion or intuition – the really important thing is the refusal to stop there. An idea has been born but the real work only starts then. What marks great thinkers out for me is their willingness to reflect and question and probe and introspect endlessly. So yes intuition and experience are amazing tools to help us, but a tool or a process needs quality control – and that’s what reflexivity and reflectivity are for. But more on that next week in studio …
NIce diagram Fiona – but the “inexperience” circle confused me a bit. It’s a negative term – and what happens where inexperience and experience intersect? I guess it could be a mad energy release, or a black hole …or would it be better labeling the circle “naivity” – which is consistent with your narrative and provoking enough to make someone pay attention?
I defer to Catriona on the deeper thoughts.
I am deeply attached to the term ‘naivety’. I think it can take you many places with an open viewpoint and provide lots of opportunity because you are willing to take anything on board. The interesting part happens when you begin reflecting on that period of time and you realise how much you have grown.
A lot of pertinent points here Fiona!
Especially your point on allowing the mind to escape this cocoon of our own experiences in order to feel amazement, shock, or repulsion. This form of thinking is uncommon in the environment. Stepping outside of our comfort zone allows us to somehow fulfill serendipitous actions, which I call “creative oopsie daisy“.
Often a more formal context doesn’t allow this type of experience, but within design ethnography, it can be a useful and powerful technique for sense-making, development and analysis.”
I was looking online for some quotation from the French physiologist Dr. Claude Bernard on the art of observation, which I think is related to your use of the word “intuition”. Here is one that I think could fit quite well with this blog post “ observation is the investigation of a natural phenomenon, and experience is the investigation of a phenomenon altered by the investigator”.
Thanks for all the comments – lots to think about, and as I thought, this post barely skims the surface of this topic.
Of course we need to have robust evidence as the foundation of our ideas – I think that’s one of the principles of what we are learning this year, and something that is often overlooked outwith academic settings. What’s interesting for me is the different perceptions of what intuition can mean – and how we as individuals imagine or believe that we can have this, especially within different discipline areas, or different industries. I’m glad this word (and it’s meaning) has sparked such interesting conversations.
Building on what Cat talks about above, my understanding is that intuition is the ability to draw lessons unconsciously from similar experiences. So even if you have not been in that specific position before, you are able to draw together your past happenings to guide you forward. To allow this to happen, you have to take time to process your own experiences, reflect on what happened and move on, whether that be a week, month or years after the even. Just because you are working in a new field, does not mean you should leave everything at the front door and start completely afresh.
What else can we bring to the field? We can bring our past experiences, fresh perspective and energy to learn, from those already doing it and those taking the first steps beside us.
Hi Fiona, it is indeed a very interesting topic. It is kind of like the reverse side of the post I wrote, which emphasizes on certain framworks. Having background in design and traveling constantly allow me to relate to your post and see the importance of ‘being intuitive’. Frameworks offer us a guideline that prepares our minds before and during the fieldwork. Howvever, our intuition, formed partly by our past experiences, will also signify us what to pay attention to and help us understand the context. It fills in the parts frameworks don’t cover. For me, the challenge is how to balance using frameworks and trusting our own intuition and how to translate that to the team members.
Thanks for raising this topic and it will be a nice reminder for my future fieldwork.