nokia talk - values in technology design and use: ethnography's contribution
DESCRIPTION
Values in technology design and use: ethnography’s contribution As a sociologist, I’ve been trained to ask macro questions about underlying social conditions. As an ethnographer, I’ve been trained to ask more grounded questions about the everyday lives of people and how they experience underlying social conditions. While incredibly illuminating for society, sociological findings do not readily appear relevant for industry and people outside of academia. My talk today is about how I came into the research internship at Nokia wanting to answer the question: how can ethnographers contribute to the product design process of a mobile device? Ethnographically grounded research on technology use is a method that aims to reveal users’ values, beliefs, and ideas. Nokia was one of the first mobile companies to concertedly hire ethnographers as part of its design process. I discovered while working here that more specifically, I wanted to find out how could ethnography be part of the Nokia’s transition from a company that produces hardware to software. I discuss how working at Nokia these past three months have initiated a critical shift in my research practices from being an ethnographer in the clouds to an ethnographer on the ground. I provide two examples of how I’ve reframed my research in terms of how values influence technology design and use: China and Mexico. First, I share my analysis on how my research on Mexican migration and migrants’ use of technologies in Mexico and in the US had led me to believe that Nokia already has an American market with a strong brand connection but unfulfilled technology needs. Second, I provide examples for how I will conduct fieldwork in China around four central themes: gaming and leisure, value clashes, social connections, and communication needs. I will be interviewing Chinese entreprenuers of failed copy-cat social networking technologies and conducting one year of ethnography on how Chinese rural-urban migrants use mobiles and internet cafes. I also review the following projects I worked on while at Nokia that have helped me re-envision and re-frame how my ethnographically minded research can contribute to technology use: 1.) Inventive Leisure Practices: I worked with Jofish Kaye to interview local hackers to better understand how they form communities around their practice. We see leisurely hacking communities as critical, yet understudied sites of innovation. 2.) Farmville: Liz Bales, Jofish Kaye, and I did some preliminary surveying to gain insight the popularity of this Facebook game. Liz and I were most interested in understanding how Farmville supported less-meangingful social ties. 3.) The Dream House: this is a project that Janet Go, Liz Bales, and I initiated as a collaboration between 19 Entertainment, Simon Cowell’s company and Nokia Research Labs. The If I Can Dream House is the first “post-reality entertainment” production. As the show is only available online through a 24/7, 60+ camera live stream and weekly Hulu releases, we wanted to better understand how audiences connect with this new form and content of interactive media and how we could use these insights to rethink mobiles device as the primary interactive device.TRANSCRIPT
Tricia Wang | www.triciawang.comValues in technology design and use: ethnography's contribution | June 9, 2010 IDEA Team | Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto
FarmVille Inventive leisure practices
Nokia’s Mexican and NorthAmerican Market
My Research in China!
How do onl ine casual games suppor t less-meaningfu l soc ia l t ies?
Stronger social ties
Less meaningful social ties
Not all ties are equalwe know this, but our technologies don’t!
How can mobile devices be designed in such a way that it enables users to effortlessly engage with various degrees of social ties?
Why casual games such as Farmville are appealing
easy enough to want to learn, difficult enough to easily learn
offers a form of low stake engagement with contacts
people like to share - practicing reciprocity
balances incentive motivated play and ethic motivated play
structured play
Practicing socialness: activities that map onto familiar social interactions (reciprocity, giving, work-time management, budget rationalization and etc.)
How do members of hacking communi t ies make sense of the i r pract ices?
Hacker ethic
Information should be free
Computers and free-information improves quality of life
Computer access should be free
Mistrust of any form of authority decentralization
Information should be shared
Users as creators, consumers as producers
Knowledge sharing as a form of gifting
Hacking as productive sites of leisure and innovation
What are the major commonalities among hacking communities?
I conducted 3 years of research in a migrant sending community in Oaxaca, Mexico
Remittances: migrants in the US send a portion of their income to their families in Mexico
How can Nokia strengthen its South American market?
Nokia has a strong brand in Mexicocross promotion with local operators
Nokia already has an American Market(it just doesn’t know it yet!)
user needs
•Cellphone 24/7•Remittances•Constant cross-border connection with family•Protect documentation status•babysitting
Design features
•secure financial transactions•ubiquitous communication•gaming to support transnational communication•Family friendly cellphone
user profile
•Relatively young•Low-income•Have families•Little education•Varying identification•No insurance
statistics
•10.6 million migrants from Mexico living in the US (projected to be 22.2 million in 2050)•6 – 7 million undocumented•500,000 undocumented arrive each year
Strategy
Design awesome and affordable phones for low-income users
Where do we start?
East Palo Alto!
East Palo Alto
16.2% of residents have income below the poverty line (CA 14.2%)
$54,115 median household income(CA $61,021)
Palo Alto
4.8% of residents with income below the poverty line (CA 14.2%)
$108,020 median household income(CA $61,021)
Moving to China for 1 year of fieldwork!
Rural to urban migrants families, cellphones, internet cafes, consumption
Education/schools
clash in values
tech failures as a result of differing values
cultural values on transparency of social connections
How values are designed into technologies
1. gaming, leisure 3. social connections
2. value clashes 4. communication needs
1. gaming, leisure 3. social connections
2. value clashes 4. communication needs
1. gaming, leisure 3. social connections
4. communication needs2. value clashes
access to information
Hacker ethic
Information should be free
Computers and free-information improves quality of life
Computer access should be free
Mistrust of any form of authority decentralization
Information should be shared
20th-21st
century17th-18th
century
The Enlightenment
Confucianism
20th-21st
century17th-18th
century200 BCE
The Enlightenment
How can technology be designed in such a way that is sensitive to value(s)?
What values do people bring to the table as users, consumers or citizens of these
technologically mediated spaces?
1. gaming, leisure
4. communication needs
3. social connections
2. value clashes
Address Book Model
Social network model
Experience model
Nokia moving from hardware to softwareCultural orientations towards services & solution
EXPLICIT
United States
IMPLICIT
China
Cultural orientation towardssocial connections/guanxi
guanxi
China
How can services/apps be designed for communities with alternative orientations towards transparency?
1. gaming, leisure 3. social connections
4. communication needs2. value clashes
How can Nokia design technologies that respond to differing communication paradigms?
China - QQ messenger US - Gmail
Thank you Nokia!
See you all in 2012 when I return from my fieldwork!
www.triciawang.com