Letters from the Equator

Ethnography involves a lot more work than user experience design, because it involves deeper immersion, more personal commitment, a greater willingness to learn from one’s own observational failures, and the ability to work across cultural boundaries.

This is only a small part of what user experience design attempts to accomplish, and depending on how you apply ethnographic methods in UXD, it can add as much value to a design as it can damage it.

Here’s an ethnographer’s take on how usability tests (usually done after or during implementation/prototyping) and focus groups (typically done during the research phase) may not be of *any* benefit to a user if the cultural context has been completely misunderstood.

“While usability tests and focus groups are useful for specific phases of app development, they aren’t as useful for understanding cultural frameworks and practices because by the time an app is being tested, it already has accumulated so many cultural assumptions along the way in the design process that users are asked to test something that functions in the programmer’s world, not the user’s world.”

- Tricia Wang, “My Suggestions for Making Google’s Services More Relevant for Non-Elite Chinese Users“

While working on my MSc dissertation with Abigail Sellen from Microsoft Research’s Socio-Digital Lab and Jennifer Rode, my previous supervisor from UCL, I learnt how quickly and easily it was to misunderstand the work of ethnography and anthropology. These fields have had a much longer history than the field of user experience has, and yet – they’ve become instantly popular because of UX, and its terms can often be misinterpreted and misused.

I don’t claim to be an expert on the ethnography or anthropology, but having read some classic ethnographic literature (e.g. Clifford Geertz), it’s clear that there’s a lot more going on compared to something like Holtzblatt and Beyer’s “Contextual Design”, though both of the authors have fairly strong academic affiliations.

Designers and UX practitioners need to read beyond commercially popular business and design books if they really want to get at the heart of how to understand cultures, humanity, and people. The fields of ethnography and anthropolgy tend to be more academic and research-focused, and there can be complications over viewpoints between different schools of thought in the related fields – thus it takes time to really go through the literature, but that’s the cost you pay in order to re-skill oneself in the art of understanding people.

scotland is pretty

i made this up a few days ago with a bit of help browsing around the internets. it turned out quite ok so i decided to put it up here.

2 thighs with drumsticks
1 onion - chopped
2 carrots - chopped to bite-sized chunks
2 cups small mushrooms
1 cup beer - i used hoegaarden white
pepper
salt
1 tbsp chili powder
6 cloves garlic

first pat the chicken with salt and pepper. let it sit for 5 mins maybe. meanwhile heat up a pan, add oil, then put the chicken in. fry till light brown. then take them out.

with the oil and fat leftover, fry the garlic cloves till golden then toss in the onions, carrots and mushrooms and toss them around for about 2 minutes, then put the chicken back in. add the beer, chili powder and a pinch of salt - bring it to boil, then lower the heat to let it simmer.

wait about 30 minutes until the beer has reduced. taste and see how you like it - add salt/chili powder if necessary. i prefer the stew a bit thicker but with enough to around so i usually leave it on for a few more minutes.

serve with rice.

red, white and clueless

One increasing concern I have about careers is the importance of understanding how technological, social and political movements affect job markets in different places around the globe. It’s extremely messy, so bear with me as I try to explain myself.

The myth of ‘Us vs. Them’

The point I’m trying to make is that the concept of an “Us vs. Them” is becoming increasingly outdated – not just from a global job market perspective, but from a career perspective as well. As we become more aware of this, we will begin to exchange our services more effectively, and navigate our careers in more dimensions than before – across cultures, social levels, languages, skills and geographical spaces.

However, there are huge risks in making the transition from a conventional job mindset to a more open, radical global job mindset. This could mean shifting from one culture to another, changing the way we communicate, adapting our products or services, and so on. But it is inevitable – the world is becoming increasingly advanced, and it requires a lot of expertise, collaboration and innovation to get there. But it can only do so if the solutions are applied in its proper context.

I’ll try to illustrate this from my own work experience.

Absorbing culture in the workplace

In October 2001, I got a job as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Kansas’ technology research arm, and they got me programming Java interfaces for a NASA-funded space project. I was a newbie, but they made sure I stuck to the best practices and I learnt a ton from that. It was partly the culture, process, and project opportunity that I absorbed from the job. I took this with me to my next job after I graduated and returned home to Malaysia, after having no luck finding a job in the US at the height of the dot-com bust.

Cultural differences can create opportunities, and take them away

It was unfortunate that my new Malaysian job resembled primordial soup in comparison with the NASA project, with very primitive software practices, spaghetti code and other monstrosities (a work practice difference). It was also my first job in a completely new culture as almost all of my colleagues spoke in fluent Chinese rather than English (a language/cultural difference). This caused considerable tension that I was mostly assigned to projects where I worked by myself – but this proved to be somewhat profitable as I was capable of solely implementing entire systems from the database to the interface, due to expertise I gained from my previous work experience.

I left after 2.5 years, after realizing there was a corporate ceiling above me. The experience I gained developing bespoke, well-designed web applications was well-received by the next company who hired me, which was more diverse in their staffing. This was also reflected in their products, as cultural compatibility was less of a concern, allowing them to handpick developers that were truly proficient in their technical trade. Thus, the company culture mostly revolved around technology itself, and it was a very positive atmosphere to work in. This was an example of cultural diversity resulting in a positive work culture.

At this point, I was experiencing how culture made a difference to my opportunities and work perspectives in the two different companies, but it was only in my next job that I felt I needed to seek a better cultural fit in my career progression.

Seeking cultural fit for career reasons

Due to an unfortunate legal battle in the “diverse” company, it downsized and I joined a multinational telecoms company for my next job. It was here that I took part in projects that spanned multiple countries like the UK, France, Netherlands, Malaysia, India and Singapore – becoming sensitive to how damaging misconceptions about another person’s culture can be. I was also increasingly frustrated and confused when I found it hard to relate more Western ideas about innovation and design to my Malaysian colleagues. And as more people misunderstood me, I felt increasingly out-of-place and isolated.

Leaving my home country of Malaysia and coming to London to pursue a Masters in Human-Computer Interaction was an attempt to find a “career common ground” – and this is the point I want to stress: I believe that the boundaries that used to mark “Us vs. Them” are dissolving because job seekers everywhere are becoming more specific about their career goals, and because of this they may journey much farther out of their comfort zones (culture, family, language, etc.) to find a right match. It may not necessarily lead one to move from one country/state to another, but the movement of employees seeking “cultural fit” in their careers is already happening.

Some of us are taught to accept whatever opportunities that are presented to us, and not to be overly idealistic about our goals. But I believe that it’s in everyone’s hearts to serve in the areas they fit in best. I feel that as we move deeper into the 21st century, there will be an increase of savvy job seekers who are willing to sacrifice their previous experiences for new ones – and in so doing create new movements in job industries everywhere.

I just stumbled across Cennydd’s post about ‘blaming the designer’, which somewhat reflects my work experiences in the past year. I too, found the “design hell” comic to be humorous, and admittedly counted it as gospel truth initially. Then I forgot about it and like all designers/developers, went back and dealt with the hard stuff and worked until our product was finally launched or finished.

Aim for the finish as a team, not for the journey

And so, a few weeks ago on the eve of Christmas last year, we launched our site live. My client, my boss, was happy with the results and our effort to implement tiny changes at the very last minute, and I admit I’m happy with the outcome myself, despite all the ranting and heated arguments about things like how consistency in design isn’t everything and about not adding more ‘unnecessary’ features. It was satisfying to know that my client was happy – that we had produced something that was ready for launch, live. And I think that’s something all designers and developers need to keep in front of their minds, rather than the course at hand.

The opportunities are in our hands

We live in a world that’s increasingly complex, and we appreciate and learn of each other’s strengths in bits and pieces at a time. To this end, I admit my own shortcomings of not being able to bridge the gap between business, marketing, design and engineering more effectively for my client. I now believe that creative freedom comes with caveats, and it is rare that clients will allow designers all the freedom in the world. It is increasingly becoming the designer’s responsibility to seize the opportunity to educate and collaborate with clients to solve problems ‘the design way’, meeting both design and business goals.

I see this as a major opportunity for creative types – designers, content managers, UX consultants, even developers. This is because clients know they are partly ignorant about design and are willing to hear what we have to say. At they same time, they’re not going to back down on what they know best about business, and we need to be sensitive to that.

Putting things to practice

So how would I react this time around?

I think, for a start, my attitude has to be right. I need to stay positive and not try to put down the ideas that come from clients. I should give credit where credit is due, and understand that not every solution is ideal. In fact, some of them are hacks due to various factors like time or lack of knowledge. As iteration is always possible (especially for the web), this isn’t a big problem. Solutions can always be improved, and it’s best to allow some “hacks” to pass, and learn from it through testing and user feedback.

I also feel documentation is key, and putting things down in black and white makes it easy for everyone in the team to see how the design has progressed from day one. Everything that’s documentable is valuable – wireframes, sketches, screenshots, feature requests, reasons for change, points of argument, etc. While I don’t think everything has to be documented, our team did make use extensive use of tools and artifacts to facilitate communication. So, use them wisely.

Finally, the success of the design should be celebrated at the end of a major phase. I somehow feel the best person to do this is the client, but this doesn’t always happen. In some ways, the client’s utmost satisfaction acts as a major milestone in the outcome of a project. In my case, it was my boss’s satisfaction and decision to launch the site live. He brought in a bottle of champagne and we toasted to the launch on Christmas eve, which helped to finalize a major phase in the project and ease fears that we might be carrying on throughout the holidays.

Whatever it is, we all crave to closure to our efforts, some space to regenerate and look forward to our next big task.

This has been a fairly successful year for me. In some ways, in has been my most successful “transitional” time period.

I have this idea that periods of time spent between big phases in life are known as “transitional” time periods - a bit like being stuck in airports in transit between flights… it’s something you have to do, but given the chance you might opt out.

I’m not a big fan of transitions. I hated moving out my house an into my new apartment a few years ago, and I hated it even more when I moved out of that apartment and sold everything to come to London. Granted, I did it only because I was dying for a big change in my life, and I’m glad I made the move… but things never go smoothly during transitions.

So, when I say I’ve had a successful transition this year, I’m saying it with caveats. I’ve successfully completed the Masters course at UCL, acquired a fulltime paid position at a local startup, and am still charmed by London as a city. I’m overall grateful for all these blessings.

However, I’m aware of the sacrifices I’ve made to get here. In some ways, the course represented a sort-of hiatus from my career as a software developer. It also represents an opportunity to a new career in user experience and human factors. So, combining the two - it feels a bit like I’m neither here nor there. It feels like I’ve lost a bit of time to do some soul searching, and now I’m having to play catch-up.

The good thing about transitions is that they only last so long. And because they’re transitions, you’re almost always spending that time preparing yourself for the next best thing.

Too often I freak out and get overly anxious during transition periods, when I should be sitting back with the comfort of knowing that the next phase of my life hasn’t even really begun yet.

I think 2009 represents that transition period for me - and I’m welcoming 2010 as a real start to my next phase in life. So, with much gratitude and anticipation, I bid 2009 goodbye, and I welcome the next year with open arms.

This will warm the cockles of your heart this #xmas

:)

I haven’t been blogging for awhile, and here’s why – I’ve had a go at living a normal life. I checked my twitter messages a lot less, unsubscribed to Wired’s Top Stories and a whole bunch of other popular feeds, and instead I just… “did stuff”. I spent a bit more time cooking at home, dining out at different places around London, devoting more focused time to my day job, getting through my large stash of ebooks and audiobooks and listening to more music through some really amazing earphones I bought a few weeks ago.

Good life, slower life

I’m quite happy about the progress. Comparatively, there’s a lot more junk on the internet, and being able to consume quality experiences in a much longer duration (preparing a meal, reading a book, going out for dinner with my wife) has been more satisfying to say the least.

One thing that bugs me is the sheer amount of experiences out there I feel I ought to try. And it’s a bit scary – because it feels a bit unsafe, a bit edgy… something that demands a bit more commitment and resources than clicking buttons all day. Because I know I can read the best tutorial about designing a chair and it won’t come close to what it’s really like to build a chair (just as an example).

Today I attempted to cook fried rice again – a dish I’ve cooked countless times, but have never perfected. And although it tasted a little better, it wasn’t good enough. And, it seems I could spend more time perfecting a good fried rice, or I could go learn to cook something else… but again that’s like another lesson all over again.

More risks, more planning

The thing is – I’m at the point in my life where I am calculating more than I am taking risks. I don’t want each attempt to be wasted. Not all risks that are taken will lead to learning and success. Idiots do exist, and I don’t want to end up being one.

I’m shifting my focus away from the younger generation, a generation I learnt a lot from in previous years. Some things in life don’t change, and there’s a reason why history repeats itself. In a single lifetime, I believe it is possible to learn from our past, and make a difference a day at a time towards a better future – my future.

In a sense, I’m going to stop looking to the future in order to fix my past.

christmas party at @songkick. thanks, songkick!