Ethnographic Techniques (Surveys and Interviews)

Ethnographic Techniques are techniques originated from ethnographic research which focuses its effort on studying specific community or culture. The most common ways to conduct this type of elicitation techniques is through interviews and surveys. This method is very useful when studying large population where statistical analysis is used to represent the entire population.

Kano Modeling
Kano modeling is a survey model. According to [1] it is the most common survey method to analyze customer preferences in system features. Kano modeling has three variables: one-dimensional, expected, and attractive quality.

• One-dimensional (or linear quality) is when a system feature increases linearly with the potential customer value to the product. Example [1], in refrigerators, the more energy efficient, the more likely for customers to buy it.
• Expected quality is a feature that is essential to the successful of system.
• Attractive quality is a non required feature of the system, however if it was added it would give a good reason for users to use your system. Some attracted quality can be changed into expected with time, for example, cell phone camera used to be attracted but now its an expected feature.

One good fact about Kano modeling is that it is sensitive to the cultural differences. This means that values can change between different cultures and countries, and even states.

Surveys and interviews in general can capture the emotional and cultural responses and preferences to the end-users.

Note: Interviews technique is explained in this blog entry.