Use of skill acquisition theory to understand novice to expert development in design ethnography

The design processes engineers use to develop artifacts have a significant effect on the utility and impact these artifacts have on society. Traditional design processes are technology-centric, focusing on the artifact being developed with less emphasis on the context, culture, and people for whom they are developed. Human-centered design processes, however, strive to place the humans who will interact with the artifact at the center of the design process. These processes require a deep understanding of the stakeholders and a product's context of use. One method for obtaining this deep level of understanding is design ethnography, a set of methods derived from research methods developed within social science and used to understand participants preferences and context of use. To date, the limited research on design ethnography education has demonstrated that there is a significant gap between what novices can produce in their use of design ethnography and what is reported in the literature on the use of design ethnography within industry. In this paper we interpret the findings of design ethnography studies (of both novices and experts) through the lens of the Dreyfus and Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.Wedemonstrate how this theory of skill acquisition explains specific results found in the literature and the challenge of developing design ethnography as a skill.Wealso discuss the pedagogical implications of this model of design ethnography learning and consider Kolb's theory of learning as it applies to the development of students as design ethnographers.

Duke Scholars

Author Ibrahim Mohedas Christensen Family Center for Innovation