Rewriting Context and Analysis: Bringing Anthropology into HCI Research

Abstract

The use of technology is not a given; rather, we use tools and technology to interact with each other and/or cooperate with each other in various social contexts. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research has for long time emphasized the importance of understanding the social context in which this interaction occurs. The concern for and importance of understanding the social context in system design is often motivated by research on immediate context in which work and system development occurs and/or where a certain technical artefact or a computer is used. Analysis within HCI tends to focus on the ongoing activity, the moment-by-moment action of individual lay actors. These events and actions are given priority and are regarded as significant in part because these can be counted. The focus of the analysis is on the particularities of the immediate situation, thus missing the larger picture of what is going on. These types of studies as they have been carried out in HCI deemphasize the study of more stable phenomena and reproduction of a series of structures that inform individual action. In conclusion, the study of moment-by-moment actions of the technology use provides us with only a partial understanding of the social context. The role of ethnography, other than as a research methodology, within HCI has been to point out the importance of understanding the social context, the routines of users’ workday, its practical management and organization. However, the use of ethnography in HCI-research and particularly in design is not unproblematic as the ongoing discussions about the role of ethnography suggests. For example, designers and developers tend to use ethnography instrumentally as a form of data collection in order to identify and solve problems. Results of ethnographic analyses are expected to feed directly into the interests and issues related to technological development. This misrepresents the role ethnography has in anthropology and in the social sciences, more generally. The more we know about the socio-cultural and historical circumstances the users live in and act on, the better the chances that we can design technologies that support (or change) the users' everyday work. What we are suggesting here is the need for a more analytical, more inclusive way of understanding technology, its design and implementation. This, we believe, is the contribution anthropology can bring to the field of HCI community. Today in the HCI community anthropology is generally equated with ethnography. This is