ethnographic research

In October of 2018, Design Science presented at EPIC, the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. It’s the foremost organization representing qualitative researchers across healthcare, technology, and design. From around the globe, participants came together in Honolulu to discuss this year’s theme: evidence. As companies accumulate ever-larger data collections, information overload has. Read more

Every few years, I try to improve my own product. Prompted by a sense of dissatisfaction with my clothing, I clean out and rebuild my wardrobe. I fill a trash bag with clothes to be donated, and feel accomplished as I look at my newly spacious closet. Each time I do this I’m convinced that I’ve solved the problem, only to be faced with that same problem again within a year or two. Read more

This blog post is part two of a two-part series on using video records in contextual inquiry. Read more

This blog post is part one of a two-part series on using video records in contextual inquiry. Read more

At Design Science, our research most often focuses on the environments of medical professionals—ORs, cath labs, clinics. Yet some of the most rewarding research I have conducted here has involved visiting patients’ homes. Accompanied by a videographer, I’ve traveled past cornfields and baseball diamonds to meet families that are coping with serious conditions and investigate how they are wielding. Read more

While Design Science is most well known for its experience in conducting ethnographic research at medical facilities, a growing number of our projects provide opportunities for us to venture outside of the hospital and apply our methodologies to the study of non-medical products. As a field researcher I have had the chance to participate in a number of “unconventional” projects that took me to. Read more

Are you passionate about working collaboratively to make a felt difference in the world? At Design Science we have one mission - fitting products to people. Read more

A new guidance for medical-device field research has just been released: the Technical Information Report, AAMI TIR51:2014, "Human factors engineering – Guidance for contextual inquiry." Read more

Is the awakening over? Has the medical industry finally come to embrace the benefits of human factors engineering…? In a word, the answer is “yes.” In more than a word, the answer is “not entirely.” In an article in INNOVATION’s summer 2014 issue, Michael Wiklund (of Wiklund Research & Design) and Stephen Wilcox, FIDSA, argue that human factors is a tool not only for evaluating a product’s. Read more

Design Science is happy to announce that we will be participating in the inaugural 2014 IDSA Medical Design Conference, The Usability Ecosystem. Read more