Contextual inquiry and Ethnography

Today in my Qualitative Research Methods class, we were discussing to role of ethnography in new product development (NPD).

We read an interesting paper from Paul Dourish entitled "Implications for Design" that I really loved because it started a discussion about what is contextual inquiry (CI) and ethnography (EG).

In my view, CI and EG are both tools that can be used by engineers to design, invent, and implement new products.  These tools are used to understand the needs/requirements of end user groups, the relationships that end user have between products, and the importance of these relationships.

Understand user needs is important because at the end of the day engineers have to build something that works and can be sold to a target end user group. 

If the product that has been created works, but is not marketable than that is a failure.  Likewise, if you sell a product and it does not work that is a failure.   I will get into what "work" means in another blog.

There is, however, a difference between CI and EG and I always struggle with understanding where CI and EG begin and end.  

Both contextual inquiry and ethnography can be used to build new products, the difference it seems is  that the end goal of CI is to solely aid in new product develop while EG's end goal is to understand the relationships, dynamics, and importance between people and products.

It just seems that EG is just a more in depth study and analysis of the interaction people have with an object, people, and/or an environment.

I will be trying to further refine my understanding of CI and EG as the semester comes to a close, but I am really glad I took that Qualitative Research Methods class. :)