Masterclass 3 Fieldwork for Design
Dave Randall
Manchester Metropolitan University

The general need for this masterclass arises out of the growing importance of ‘design’ in a range of activities and the particular recognition that the commonly recognised, if much hyped, benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will only materialise if users, usability and dependability are central to the design process. The emphasis is then on design as a sociotechnical enterprise. In recent years there has been an expansion of the notion of design to embrace a range of socio-technical issues of varying kinds concerned with spatiality, temporality, sociality and aesthetics. The domains and settings to which ‘design’ and technology is relevant has also expanded to embrace domestic settings, public spaces of various kinds, healthcare etc. The interdisciplinary nature of the design enterprise is reinforced by the commonplace observation that design now encompasses a range of considerations and disciplines rather than mere engineering or technology. Interdisciplinary communities such as Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) have grown apace as various techniques and approaches from the human sciences have been explored and adopted for this purpose. One approach in particular has gained much prominence: fieldwork. With fieldwork, the social context in which systems are to be used can be better understood; with fieldwork the difficulty of extrapolating from the laboratory to the real world is obviated by commencing with the real world. Unfortunately this has not necessarily resulted in uniformly better systems. Fieldwork alone does not ensure good design. Fieldwork is a catch-all phrase for various forms of direct observation and analysis. However, although ‘going out and looking’ is easy the fieldwork skills in question are analytic skills and are predicated on a ‘sensibility’ or ‘way of looking’. The masterclass proposed will address a range of methodological and technical knowledge, skills, understandings and related issues in fieldwork studies as used in the Social Sciences. In particular it considers a number of advances in sophistication and rigour for conducting fieldwork research, especially in inter-disciplinary projects; developments arising from the incorporation of new or newly relevant disciplines, perspectives and techniques – such as art and aesthetics, ethics and design; advances brought about by the need to adopt and adapt existing methodological approaches to new situations, such as public spaces, healthcare and domestic environments’ and by developing notions of what constitutes ‘best’ practice in fieldwork studies for interdisciplinary research projects.

Masterclass Objective
The masterclass develops and expands themes concerning the use of fieldwork methods in
the Social Sciences in general and CSCW and HCI in particular. It has the overall objective of developing an understanding and appreciation of the various theoretical perspectives utilised by researchers and the practical issues that arise during the conduct of such ‘naturalistic’ fieldwork enquiry. Dr Randall will examine the practice of fieldwork at a number of levels including the theoretical, conceptual and practical, and use his experience of working with design and management teams to illustrate many of the practical problems associated with doing fieldwork illustrated by examples drawn from empirical studies in a range of domains including commercial and industrial settings, domestic environments and public spaces.

Masterclass – aims and contents
The masterclass aims to meet a number of aims associated with the above overall objectives.
1. – The Practicalities of Fieldwork - The practical problems, strategies and choices of the fieldworker in performing observational studies will be discussed in detail. Experiences gleaned from a range of studies will be offered for examination. There will be a particular
emphasis on issues of access and ethical considerations – issues in the development and implementation of ethical protocols as well as critiques concerning generalisation, subjectivity and reflexivity etc.
2. – Theoretical Perspectives on Fieldwork data – Participants will learn the relevance of theoretical perspectives to the practice of fieldwork, and to the problem of capturing social complexity. The masterclass booklet will emphasise the issue of analysis both as it relates to theoretical positions and in examining data /developing appropriate concepts. A number of competing theoretical perspectives will be examined, compared and contrasted.
3. – Fieldwork Technologies – The technologies available for eliciting data and supporting analysis, will be dealt with in detail. In each instance, the possibility that the analytic stance adopted may have specific 'payoffs' for specific purposes will be examined,with particular reference to recent interdisciplinary developments such as the use of ‘cultural probes’, the use of video, and various forms of ‘digital data’ such as text logging. The masterclass will briefly consider the use of such technologies, including the real-time analysis of social patterns and processes, and issues for their practical realisation, including data integration and management, and ethical issues relating to access, security, confidentiality and privacy.
4 – Fieldwork in Workplace, Private and Public Settings
5. – Fieldwork and Interdisciplinary Working – Problems of method, communication and comprehension in interdisciplinary collaborations such as that between ethnographer and system developer will be presented. It will be emphasised that many of these problems are matters of practical communication procedures.
6. – Fieldwork and Analysis –Conducting field studies involves gaining access to the place one wishes to observe, carrying out the study with the right sensitivities, then working an analysis through a diverse set of recorded materials (e.g. notes, documents, audio/video recordings). Specialist skills are required to do this research, skills that cannot be taught in abstract but must be learned as a craft.
This masterclass will include comprehensive notes. It will review and build on existing literature on ethnography, systems design, and change management but will endeavour to maintain a practical focus.

Web-based Resources:
A website has been developed to supplement the tutorial: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~rouncefi/Tutout.html

Intended Learning Outcomes:
Ethnography must be adequate to interdisciplinary tasks. If one were to glance at the CSCW literature and other related disciplines one will see that there is an emerging ‘body politic’, a set of tools and assumptions that are beginning to be used to evaluate and comment on matters of empirical adequacy, scope, relevance, tractability and so on. It entails a hybrid of skills and tools from the ‘ethnographic’ and the ‘fieldwork’ tradition; it involves the use of a wide set of conceptual tools and concerns; and it requires a dynamic and flexible approach to its role in a design process. And finally, it requires a particular view about evidence, its evaluation and its use, and about the role of evidence generated by other disciplinary-specific approaches to fieldwork.

Target audience
The masterclass will be of use to a range of Social Science researchers including those in Management, Healthcare and Education as well and commercial researchers and consultants working in interdisciplinary teams who are intending to embark on observational studies themselves; and to system developers who wish to become familiar with issues arising from the adoption of observational methods. There will be 10-15 attendees – at any level of experience.

About the presenter
Dave Randall, a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, has been involved in a range of projects including; Air Traffic Control (ATC); retail finance; museums and domestic environments. His book ‘Fieldwork for Design’ has recently been published by Springer.

Attendance is milited to 6-8 participants. Expressions of Interest should be emailed to Dave Randall (d.randall [AT] mmu.ac.uk)