Techniques for researching and designing global products in an unstable world

The value of ethnographic field work for guiding and inspiring product design is indisputable, especially for development teams working on products for other cultures. However, global instability can make it difficult or impossible for researchers and product designers to travel to foreign countries to conduct field work, leaving them ill equipped to guide culturally-appropriate product design. In this paper, we present a series of ethnographically-inspired techniques that allow researchers and development teams to gather a range of culturally relevant information for product design without visiting the countries for which they are designing. These techniques are not intended to substitute for on-the-ground ethnographic fieldwork, rather, they are intended to serve as a surrogate until further in-situ research can be conducted.