Toward an Ethnography of Friction and Ease in Complex Systems

Abstract

The stuff we ethnographers help to create is becoming more socially and technologically complex. Despite this, ethnographic practice in industry largely continues to rely on conceptual frameworks that favor relative simplicity. This paper describes our multi-year collaboration to develop a set of concepts and resources to support complexity- and systems-oriented thinking in design ethnography. Drawing on our own experiences as practicing anthropologists, we explore some of the ways in which three “frictions” hinder systemic thinking in user-centered design research. These are the frictions of availability, dissonant knowledge, and entrenched praxis. Against these, we argue for a broader, systems-sensitive approach to industry ethnography—one that seeks to understand both friction and ease for a wider range of human subjects and settings than are usually considered. Guided by perspectives from the social sciences and industry, as well as our own experience, we suggest turning our inquiry toward systems-situated phenomena, exploring, specifically: interconnectedness, synthesis, and emergence. We then describe our own foray into “user ecosystem thinking,” a practical, experimental framework for applying a systems-sensitive approach to research and design.