Ethnographic studies must be conducted in association with design personas in order for the work to have validity. Setting up these interviews can involve a great deal of logistics and planning.
When in the field conducting an ethnographic interview, it is important to be able to capture the session in order to provide good data for analysis. Ideally, the participants need to be informed of what to expect during the session in terms of the amount of time they need to set aside, any time of homework assignment they need to complete ahead of time, and how the session will be captured (e.g. handwritten notes, video recording, etc.).
Often times, the recruiting of participants is conducted by someone else other than the person facilitating the interviews. As a result, it is easy to gloss over these types of requirements. It is incumbent upon the facilitator to contact the participants ahead of time and clarify expectations about the session.
Once the expectations have been clearly communicated, the interviews themselves are able to be conducted with little to no awkward moments surrounding the use of a video camera, etc.
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