Developing design ethnography interviewing competencies for novices

In design projects, ethnographic research techniques are used to generate a deep understanding of stakeholders' needs in order to create a product or service that meets those needs. One common ethnographic research approach is semi-structured, direct-dialogue interviews. Ethnographic research methods, like interviewing, are essential for gathering accurate, in-depth qualitative data, yet most students tasked with gathering such data on design projects do so with little or no formal training. In response to this, an online design ethnography training program was developed and administered to students in the United States, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as part of a cross-country project. These students will use their training to create a service model to improve dialysis accessibility in sub-Saharan Africa. The students involved in the study began as "novice" interviewers with little or no prior experience in conducting interviews. The training program introduced and exercised design ethnography research techniques, such as active and reflective listening, interviewing etiquette, question framing, and similar. In addition to the interviewing training, the students were exposed to topics on design thinking, empathy mapping, stakeholder mapping, participatory design, service design, and co-design. The training consisted of five virtual workshops, individual homework assignments, practice interviews, and personalized instructor feedback. This leads us to the main research question for this work: How might we verify that novices have baseline competency for conducting ethnographic design interviews before engaging in interviews for the design project? Interviewing metrics were established through literature based on best practices, and then these metrics were structured to score the transcripts of the practice interviews in the training by the research team. The metrics were used to evaluate if a novice interviewer had reached a baseline competency of interviewing. The practice interviews were independently reviewed by two interviewing experts, and the final score was agreed upon by these experts. The training session brought all students to the skill level necessary for the research purposes of the Wright Lab. The educational resources and structure in the training have prepared the students for uncovering unanticipated stakeholders, resources, and obstacles in the development of a kidney dialysis treatment system in sub-Saharan Africa. This application is an example of where ethnographic research can make a difference in complex design problems. When stakeholder circumstances are not fully understood, there is a higher chance that the solution presented will not actually meet their needs. The student participants are using their training to design a potential dialysis service model with the aim of increasing access to dialysis care in Uganda and Zimbabwe.