whyte styles from chris woebken on Vimeo.

I was having a conversation with a colleague on the benefits of contextual research – carrying out research in the environment where customers use your products and services.  Some of the benefits include:

• Capturing natural behaviour as and when it happens
• Understanding the impact of the immediate environment upon customer behaviour
• Ability to ask the participant about something when it’s fresh in their mind

During 2006 Business Week published a great slide show which illustrates the role which ethnographic research has played in helping to develop new products.

The New Media Medicine Group at MIT Media Lab exploring how technology can help individuals control their health.

New Media Medicine from nextlab on Vimeo.

If you are carrying out observation research a Flip may be the recording device you are looking for. It allows you to record up to 120 minutes of video which is easy to download on to your computer.

The National Centre for Research Methods is inviting applications for research methods training bursaries you can find out more here.

Adobe’s ‘Design Centre / Think Tank’ has published Dori Tunstall’s article ‘Design anthropology: What can it add to your design practice?’ a ‘must read’ for people interested in learning about how design anthropology can bring benefits to the design process.

Gabriel Biller and Kristy Scovel have produced a video where they talked to professors, experts and students about different research methods (from contextual interviews through to extreme user interviews).   By identifying users’ needs you can really start to innovative and design products and services which connect with people.

Getting People to Talk: An Ethnography & Interviewing Primer from Gabe & Kristy on Vimeo.

The Times has published a short article on observational research aka ethnography – mainstream corporations such as Nokia and consultancies such as IDEO are using ethnography to help drive their product/service/innovation processes. “I’ve got a fair idea of what you’re carrying in your pockets,” Jan Chipchase says, somewhat ominously. “I spend a lot of time rooting around in people’s bags. And fridges.” So goes the opening gambit of a self-described “professional, authorised stalker”. Employed by Nokia, the largest mobile phone maker, he tracks human behaviour around the world to help to design the phones of the future.” Read more here