This paper shares guidance for designing conversational AI based on findings from linguistic and social analysis...
Genre: Genre
Friction by Machine: How to Slow Down Reasoning with Computational Methods
This paper provides a theoretical alternative to the prevailing perception of machine learning as synonymous with...
How a Government Organisation Evolved to Embrace Ethnographic Methods for Service (and Team) Resilience: The Case of the Canadian Digital Service
Government websites and online services are often built with limited input from the people they serve. This approach limits their ability to respond to ever changing needs and contexts. This case study describes...
Making Tech More Accessible: An Ethnographic Lens on Ability and Disability
EPIC Members Richard Beckwith and Susan Faulkner (Intel) have assembled a panel of luminaries in accessible tech research, design, and engineering for our January 26 event, Seeing Ability: Research and Development for Making Tech More Accessible. In anticipation, we asked them a few questions...
Building Resilient Futures in the Virtual Everyday: Virtual Worlds and the Social Resilience of Teens during COVID-19
Virtual worlds have been central to an imagined future in which advances in technology propel new social practices. The recent focus within the technology industry on the “metaverse” is the latest iteration of...
Anticipating the Unanticipated: Ethnography and Crisis Response in the Public Sector
This case study emphasizes the importance of ethnographic research in the public sector, specifically regarding emergency preparedness and crisis-response. In the summer of 2020, Surrey County Council in England commissioned a mixed-method Community Impact Assessment to better assist and serve...
AI Mental Models & Trust: The Promises and Perils of Interaction Design
This study offers practical solutions to ongoing issues of trust and accountability in AI, highlighting how AI...
Accessibility as Apparatus: How the Friction Filled Experience of Using Hearing Aids with a PC Led a Corporation to Design for Accessibility
This paper presents ethnographic studies of hard of hearing (HoH) users that had significant impacts on the...
Breaking the Wall of Engineering and Culture: Applied Qualitative Research in Software Companies of LATAM Industrial Sector
This case study demonstrates the value of ethnography and qualitative approaches in Latin American industry,...
Frictions in the Future of Work
The concept of the "future of work", though widely-referenced in mainstream media and policy discourse, remains...