Applied Anthropology and Design

Posts Tagged ‘Field notes’

Druid Cycles

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Date of Event: June 2, 2010

What: Druid Cycles Ethnography

Who: Thor Bard and rest of shop

Where: Druid Cycles’ Shop

What happened:

Today was beautiful in London and a nice day in the shop as well. Got to ride in the front of Thor’s bike cart on a Victorian stool as he pedaled us to another part of London. Hilarious and fabulous to see Londoners actually notice (and smile!) at something outside of their personal bubble.

The first hour or so I spent taking a few photos, as I have brought my camera for the week. My hopes are to not only use the camera as a tool for documentation but also as an elicitation tool. Was good to use the camera to view a different side of the shop and keep myself busy for a bit. I also was able to take a few higher quality photos of the bikes that the shop has done up to attempt and sell on their website, then spent the next few hours putting patches on tubes with two of the other employee/volunteers. Nice to do something mindless, yet useful and gave me chance to chat to the others.

Being in the shop for a few days now, I have a lot of ideas moving around my head, about what would work better in terms of a website for Druid Cycles. Again, their current website is a really basic installation of the default Wordpress theme. Most importantly it is not linked to Druid Cycles’ Twitter or Facebook accounts. Thor and his friends on Facebook really use the site quite a bit to hook up and spread information. While Wordpress is easy to update, it would be better to keep a system in place that already functions quite well.

Briefly speaking to Thor about his plans for the future, his major goal if of course to solidify his brand as Druid Cycles and to create a community that not only preaches sustainability, but is sustainable within itself. As I stated, at the moment a lot of what helps run the shop is an exchange of services and materials. Thus not only are materials reused, but close connections also keep transport costs down and perpetuate the close ties of a community that help his shop run. Relating back to the website then, the site also needs to be able to give back to the community. A very diverse one at that. This website must mirror such connections, integrating translations where possible and as Thor stated an integration of Skype so people all over can call the shop for free. Being open and helpful on the web will be essential, providing useful information about cycling and an easy access contact form. From what I have observed, Thor is very good at answering emails, especially messages on Facebook, so I feel that he will be able to handle this.

But I also feel that for Thor, to achieve a certain level of social awareness, the website should also offer something particular to his community. In the actual world , Thor offers that “good neighbor” vibe and is really willing to work with people who can prove their worth and who want to learn. I will have to think more on this and talk to Thor and others about what they receive from the community currently that really benefits them. So in general this website really is about translating their message and ideal online.

Anyway, at the moment, Thor’s previous web designer had gone missing taking the WP password and username with him. AND all the domain and hosting information. Will deal with tomorrow as well as hopefully have a more in-depth conversation to decide what exactly is happening with the website.

Few Notes:

* I think I might need to finish this project in about a month rather than 2 months. I can’t seem to really start writing my thesis, because I haven’t time to really sit back and look at the information I have gathered. And I don’t think I will be able to actually write 20,000+ words coherently in a month. Remember to speak to advisor about this….

*I need to actually speak about my use of ethnography in design…I will do this in the next few days. Now that I have posted it on the blog I have to get it done.

*Also need to decipher the purpose of using Meetup.com as a place to network and informal focus groups.

*There is a divide between nonprofits that need to set up and work with Wordpress themselves and those who outsource. I am not sure how important this differentiation is, or just needs to be clarified as it is brought up.

*Should limit my study to Wordpress.org or if can include some input about .com?

*Recent article as well in design research that I will be taking a look at: http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/

It is of course interesting me to see what designers consider to be best practices in ethnography. I will attempt to start a list, as I also want to be comparing what everyone is saying.

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Posted in Nonprofit | 125 Comments »

Ahem…

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Trying to get started on this whole blogging/field notes thing has proven to be quite a difficult task. Such small increments of writing appeared to be an easy and possibly fun assignment, but it has taken quite a bit more confidence and organization of my thoughts (and research time) than I imagined. But I suppose, just as with many other things, this will get easier with practice.

* I am having quite a few problems with Wordpress reformatting my text and code (more than usual). Something I am looking into…but obviously I am also trying to write my thesis…so please be patient.

This will be a place for:

  1. 1. Field notes both for my research project as a whole and nonprofit web design case-study (beginning in June). I have chosen to keep them in the same space as they will reference and build on each other.

  2. 2. Random thoughts

  3. 3. Helpful articles and resources

  4. 4. Sections of thesis chapters

  5. 5. Transcriptions of interviews alongside analysis where needed

  6. 6. Photography, audio and film documentation

  7. 7. Your comments, feedback and criticism (Be harsh!)

A few issues to contemplate before the blogging begins:

  1. 1. My opinions will be influenced by the knowledge that those I am writing about may also be reading my posts.

  2. 2. The amount of effort put into the field notes is increased in certain ways. By putting them online, it forces me to organize my thoughts more than usual because I know it will not just be me reading them. I have decided to write my first version of the field notes in Word, and to type anything and everything I can remember from a day’s events, and revise later in the evening to achieve a more coherent picture. I hope this will be helpful, in the same way that transcribing interviews helps one truly hear what the other person was saying. However, this also forces me a do a bit of extra coding to format the notes in Wordpress. Helped with the CMS.

  3. 3. I have never really enjoyed writing (thus not improving my writing as much as I could have), so hopefully I can use this daily experience to find a way of making it fun.

  4. 4. I do not aim for this to be highly academic. I will make connections where necessary, using tags and categories to filter my data, and use my thesis to truly organize my thoughts and data.

    5. Goals of putting my field notes online:

    1. 1. To get feedback from a wider audience of academics, designers and the general public and to improve my own web design and academic workflow.

    2. 2. Particularly to gain the feedback of those involved in the project and for them to question my interpretations or to correct any errors I may have made.

    3. 3. To share my knowledge and adhere to the ideals of the open source community. I hope that my research can be useful to nonprofits, designers and academics alike and restructure the relations that limit collaboration and participation.

    I shall soon have more thoughts about blogging the field notes and my research in general, but I just have to get started and make some mistakes before I can get any more intelligent thoughts out. Thanks to all who read in advance for their patience, thoughts and feedback.

    *And one more: Please do feel free to comment on the visual design and layout of the site. It is not near completed yet, but I welcome all ideas.

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    Posted in Blogging Field Notes | 101 Comments »