Cultural Probes
Design Anthropology
Definition
Cultural probes are designed to directly address cultural differences and help researchers understand how they influences peoples lives so they can be considered during the design process.
“As the feeling of the group livened perceptibly, we started explaining the contents.Worry transformed to excitement. Perhaps the probes would work after all.”
— Gaver B, Dunne T, & Pacenti E, Cultural Probes Pg 22
Procedure
Preparation
Gather evocative materials to encourage introspection
Set up a meeting with a community coordinator
Bring recording device
In person
Make sure that you create a comfortable space and address your participates in a kind manner to set them at ease.
Ask your participant if you can record the interaction.
Explain the opportunity space and help them understand the overall goal of your research.
A good way to get people started is to get something to keep their hands busy. Get them talking by asking them questions about the artifacts and then try and keep the conversation going. Feel free to prod it in directions.
Analysis
This step should be done as you go.
There should be no need to analyze as you should have gained new knowledge along the way and now you can apply that.
Use Case
While researching how people share culture through food, my team decided to do a cultural probe to better understand how local restaurants cope with catering to several cultures at once.
Strengths
Cultural probes are a great way to draw out the finer nuances of a culture that you are interested in.
Weaknesses
People are often reluctant to talk about personal things, but it can get particularly sticky when talking about someone’s culture, especially if you are seen as an outsider.
