How the Ethnography of Communication Provides Resources for Design

Abstract

Designing solutions to social problems requires some degree of interpretive accountability to the sociocultural systems in which design solutions must live. Our case studies show how ethnography of communication research generates distinctive resources for design.

Keywords:

• Ethnography of Communication
• Design
• User-Centered Design
• Design Pedagogy
• Security Studies
• Peace Building

Acknowledgments

The authors owe special thanks to the Creighton University students in the Energy Technology Program.

Notes

1. The incorporation of social scientific methods into design approaches, particularly ethnography, has been chronicled and critiqued (e.g., Forsythe, 1999).

2. See Miller and Rudnick (2011).

3. The pilot discussed here was carried out in conjunction with the SNAP research team and colleagues from both Purbanchal University and Kathmandu University. David Boromisza- Habashi also accompanied the team.

4. The name “User-Oriented Collaborative Design,” as well as many elements of the course in the Creighton University Energy Technology Program course described in this case, takes inspiration from a course by that name at Olin College of Engineering (Somerville et al., 2005).

5. Diggins and Tolmie (2003) provide a model for integrating non-EC ethnography with the generation of design materials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James L. Leighter

James L. Leighter (PhD, University of Washington) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Creighton University, Omaha, NE

Lisa Rudnick

Lisa Rudnick is Senior Researcher and Project Manager at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Geneva, Switzerland

Theresa J. Edmonds

Theresa J. Edmonds is the Assistant Director of the Energy Technology Program, Creighton University, Omaha, NE