Utilizing digital ethnography techniques to expand walkthrough method using participant-generated media

Walkthrough has found modern application as a methodology in user experience scholarship and practice to allow researchers to qualitatively “walk,” step-by-step, through a digital interface and examine functions, communication, implications, and usability. Simultaneously, existing users of digital platforms have begun creating media of themselves walking through properties for the benefit of their digital communities, leading to the rise of user-generated walkthroughs. These user-generated walkthroughs share user experience, provide situated expertise, and circulate knowledge within digital communities. Despite this growth, walkthrough methodology has largely developed within UX and human–computer interaction contexts and lacks deeper integration with social scientific and ethnographic priorities. User-generated walkthroughs in communication research present a unique opportunity to bridge these traditions by bringing the rigor and epistemological commitments of digital ethnography into conversation with walkthrough practice. In doing so, participant-generated walkthroughs center participant knowledge, positioning users as active interpreters who signal what is meaningful in digital environments. This manuscript proposes theoretical and methodological directions for future participant-generated walkthrough research, arguing that digital ethnographic considerations provide the necessary structure for more rigorous and socially grounded applications of the Walkthrough method, while also opening new possibilities for qualitative and computational inquiry in digital spaces.