My mom’s recent death left behind a heartbroken daughter who could not fathom the huge vacancy in her life—amidst a societal expectation that one can rapidly move on. Instead of my grieving process tidily expiring shortly after the funeral, I was saturating myself in her: wearing her clothing,...
The awkward pause, the impolite topic, and the embarrassing moment are occupational hazards for the ethnographer. Rather than shun these uncomfortable moments and get back to the smooth, seamless business of research, we should embrace and reflect upon them; they can be invaluable. In this...
The Concierge has been a ubiquitous staple of the service industry for centuries. How has this industry stood the test of time, and what can we learn from the analog Concierge that might inform better digital experiences? Is there a ‘secret-sauce’ that can be applied to other channels? In today’s...
Postage stamps, quickly receding in usage as we tweet our voices around the world, have for nearly 200 years been key enablers of a system that links humans by physical messages. But beyond their role as facilitators of communication, stamps themselves carry messages embedded in their usage and...
Icons have grown in popularity in recent years thanks to the brink of technology and interface design after. Today we have over 800 emoticons to use from when we comunicates with others and sometimes even adopting our own meaning of them. Our current use of icons and emoticons as a form of...
A very personal view of how a Mexican teenager finds empowerment in the D.I.Y. punk culture and how she manages to reinterpret her feminity in a patriarchal country by making meaningful creations for her and other girls. Andrea Morales Moreno is a Mexican Design student, feminist, sewing...
This visual ethnography explores how explicit understanding of the process of eating ethnic street foods can help design meaningful and engaging food experiences for users and providers. It presents an innovative approach of conducting ethnographic research that involves important domains of...
The urban environment has created a multiplication of stimulus that causes people to pay less attention to message content. In an attempt to understand what really interests them, the author found the taxi cab – a traditional mobile scenario – as way to explore aspects and encounter feelings of...
In multiple cities and countries, ethnographic research unfolded in local ice rinks, Subway sandwich shops, high-school parking lots, and family homes. The objective was for a major hockey equipment company to learn more about their customers “off the ice” – challenging assumptions about...
A question about how taxicabs look alike in different countries started a visual dialogue between two friends living in India and Mexico. Through their conversation, they discovered similar patterns on how each country is adapting to the promise of sharing economies. How are those systems based on...