Ethnographic Design can improve daily lifes in your business !

As an Ethnographic Designer, for each new project, I lead field explorations & ensure I understand the ecosystem. From that I extract patterns I turn into design opportunities. Participative design is definitely crucial when moving to the definition phase of the project. Empathy & experiments drive the work. The focus is always User/People Centred Design with made-to-measure design research. The goal is simply to improve daily life of specific craftsmen/women or workers by giving them a voice. A win-win approach for the users & the business I am working for!

My approach in 4 sketches

ethnographic design = ethnographic researches + user centred design

on a day to day basis

I lead ethnographic researches

qualitative approach, participative or not to build an understanding of human & technic factors.
mixed with quantitative tools used on measurands from the field
observation, gesture analysis, verbatim gathered are clustered to define in depth research axis & opportunities

I design & use intermediate objects to test / validate hypothesis

I make wide use of graphics to embody early concepts
storytelling & persona help me to build empathy & convey what the reality of the field is.
scientific tools are not excluded 🙂

I definitely make a wide use of participative design

through made-to-measure workshop of various size & format, carefully crafted to serve precise objectives
to involve users, stakeholders, to dig a topic, to get early feedbacks…
to explore technologies both from usability & technical point of view

Prototype of early solutions are part of my iterative approach

from concept models
to physical prototypes or wireframes
my ethnographic work is articulated with UX Designers or Product Designers

During user tests, I ensure :

follow up
fine tuning to meet the goal within the stakeholder frame of constraints

I definitely navigate in interfaces, being the link between stakeholders such as marketing/R&D and users, between human needs & technical constraints, between digital & physical worlds. Deep diving in a problem when accuracy is required, then back on systemic scale when designing/conveying the big picture is key.

I also lead work around the professionalisation to root ethnographic work within the design team :

how to better access to field : designing the field access through original set-ups

partnership with apprentice school, training teams
watch on methods, trends & tools

making my ethnographic data accessible & usable

through booklets edition : digital & hard copies

diffusion of ethnographic design methods & tools within my design team

spread of methods through conference/debate
provision of an ethnographic kit
watch through the EPIC community (epicpeople.org community for ethnography practice in Industry)

Projects as an Ethnographic Designer

details of the projects are confidential

PROJECT renewing the measuring protocol for windows quantity surveyors.

project leader : myself
in collaboration with maths & sensor teams
external collaboration with UI/UX
co-auhtor of a patent on geometrical optimisation (patent pending)

keywords : ergonomics, tool inventory, usability, algorithm, measuring devices, App, wireframing, phygital

PROJECT building & delivering a series of conference-workshops to raise Perceived Quality awareness at one of our internal clients

project leader : myself
in collaboration with my service design colleague and an external CMF designer

keywords : affordance, CMF, design language, survey

PROJECT empowering a spread community of internal technical support experts to take an active role in the innovation process of the company

project leader : myself
in collaboration with my UX colleague

keywords : insight building, sense of community, participative design, remote community work, sociology, analogous inspiration, concept model

PROJECT improving global comfort of drywall installers

project leader : myself
in collaboration with an apprentice centre for building and public works
in collaboration with the scientific experts of the research Centre & my product designer colleague

keywords : ethnographic booklet, shadowing, user diary, ergonomics analysis, questionnaires

PROJECT designing a mobile scenography for an internal client to better convey the potentiality of his innovative range of cooking device

responsible for the sceno study : myself

keywords : persona, space design, poetry, modularity, narrative
offical product launch 7.5.19 https://eurokera.com/versatis/

My trajectory

Today my 3 needs are :

develop new things
team work
fantasy

This is a result of my diagonal trajectory :

Before ethnographic design

Windscreen development : articulating R&D with industry & marketing

Designing new specific tools & associated modules of the industrial glass bending process.
Leading test campaigns on pilot & industrial furnace
Running thermal & mechanical models
R&D project management, NPV assessment.