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Ethnography


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Think like a three year old

By Maryam Nabavi

We recently had a learning zone workshop with a group of kids in our office. They were in two separate groups of 3-5 and 6-8yrs, each group with unique exercises to complete. Not to mention how exhausting it was running after the younger ones, I also realized how much more imaginative they are comparing to the older group. They [...] Read more...

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Pre-Consumer Pie & Provocation

By Morgan Gerard

In a recent blog post, Grant McCracken suggests it is the job of designers to conduct provocation and innovation through pie. He points to Project M as the source of this uniquely American metaphor with its Pie + Conversation = Ideas/Ideas + Design = Positive Change equation. As a first step towards ideas that better [...] Read more...

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The Mind of the Consumer Other

By Morgan Gerard

I hate the word “consumer.” But I’m not sure what to do with it. It drives me crazy when clients talk about “the consumer” like they’re some kind of other species out there foraging for nuts and berries in Wal-Mart, Rite Aid or the shopping malls of America. If only they could find the perfect [...] Read more...

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5 Client Tips For Buying Ethnography

By Morgan Gerard

We’ve been running ethnographic projects at Idea Couture since go. Almost three years ago, when I first joined what was then a five-person team on the fifth floor of our building, I was jettisoned into the field on a CPG project designed to examine the role of the kitchen in people’s lives. Since then – [...] Read more...

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Ethnographic Test Driving

By Morgan Gerard

A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette describing how consumer feedback (or lack of it) impacts the design of cars once again reinforces how ethnographic studies trump focus groups in concept development and testing. It points out that the 2010 Ford Taurus and Buick LaCrosse were designed with input from ethnographic studies. That’s a step [...] Read more...