Date: May 22, 2002
Speaker: Marijke Rijsberman — Interfacility
Team-based ethnography grounds IA and interaction design in an increasingly thorough and evolving understanding of users, the work they do, and the evolution of their work in response to new technologies and information tools.
User research has long been practiced as part of the interaction design methodology for internal systems development. The rise of intranets that integrate information tools and applications into steadily evolving environments requires that user research be approached as an ongoing activity rather than as a discrete activity early in the product lifecycle. Since intranets place a very high premium on user-centered information architecture, ongoing user research feeds not only into interaction design but into more narrowly defined information architecture activities, such as information categorization, navigation design, and search support.
Team-Based Ethnography serves to ground Information Architecture and Interaction Design. It provides an increasingly thorough and evolving understanding of users, the work they do, and the evolution of their work practices in response to the introduction of new technologies and information tools. Though Team-Based Ethnography won’t capture every detail of a given user experience, it offers a more complete and iterative portrait of the user experience.
Marijke Rijsberman, principal of Interfacility, leads large and small multi-professional teams in the design of complex software systems and websites. She focuses on the convergence of information architecture, industrial design, systems design, and process design to create innovative user-centered products and services.