Adaptive Path Blog

Susan P Wyche of Georgia Institute of Technology presented a paper Re-Placing Faith: Reconsidering the Secular-Religious Use Divide in the United States and Kenya. The presentation focused on a study she conducted in Nairobi, Kenya. She referenced compelling statistics about the growth of Pentecostal Christian faith in Africa. Using compelling growth statistics, she made the case that in order to understand emerging markets, it is necessary to understand the role faith and spirituality play in the lives of people in these markets.

She also shared how the use of sketching in her fieldwork proved helpful in the questioning process. One audience member explained it best in that we often view design as a method or a process to inform system building. However, in this case, design proved a useful method in deciding what should and should not be designed.

The sketches Susan used in the field opened up a dialogue with the the research participants. They provided an opportunity for participants to reflect and discuss how the depicted ideas would fit into their world view.

I’ve heard of sketches being used in the field to provide insight into acceptance or perceived usefulness of a concept. Susan’s paper provides evidence of another use: sketching as a method for gaining cultural understanding.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 8:20 am and is filed under Conference commentary, Experience design, Uncategorized, user research, workwithus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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