London: Ethnography and how it can inform design (Thursday 19 January)
Louise Ferguson will look at the nature of ethnography and what it can offer the user experience and design community and their clients. She will briefly discuss what’s involved in 'doing ethnography’ and its relationship to other methods.
Ethnography is on a roll. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a slew of articles in mainstream business media extolling its merits from the corporate perspective. Meanwhile companies such as Intel have continued to build their teams of anthropologists, all actively engaged in product and system design processes through the application of ethnographic techniques.
RSVP: To reserve your place, email: events@ukupa.org.uk with your name, stating whether you are a UPA member.
If you are allocated a place and then cannot attend, please let us know so that someone else can take it.
Date: Thursday 19 January
Time: 6.30pm for 6.45pm
Venue: MSN, Microsoft House, 10 Great Pulteney Street, London W1R 3DG map
Cost: FREE for UPA members; £10 for Non UPA members (£5 for students)
Biography:
Louise Ferguson is a user-centred design consultant specializing in user research for design and strategy. Her clients have included government agencies, think tanks, NGOs, and blue chip firms in a range of industry sectors including professional services, telecommunications and financial services.
She has contributed to a range of public policy and think tank research and publications, including Getting By, Not Getting On: Technology in UK Workplaces (The Work Foundation, 2003), the report from a major ethnographic research project based on eight UK organisations, and Touching the State (Design Council, 2004), concerning design in the public sector.
Louise is Vice President of the UK chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association. As Director of Design for Democracy’s UK Voting Initiative (a joint venture between UPA and AIGA), she is working with government agencies to improve the design of voting systems in the UK. In July 2005, together with Danny O'Brien and other digital rights activists, Louise co-founded the Open Rights Group, which aims to raise awareness of digital rights issues in the UK. She is currently Chair of ORG.
Louise holds a master’s degree in human-centred computer systems, a first degree in political economy, and various postgraduate qualifications in languages.