Process Page Example (EthnoForDesigners)

Assignment

The goal of this assignment is to set up a Process Page for IAD3300 (Ethnography for Designers). In doing so, you'll show clearly that you understood the reading material from class and explain how you applied that material to your team project (an applied ethnographic report).
A Process Page shows the project, all the work the team did, and a special focus on your contribution to the project. (That means each Process Page for team members should be different because it will be written from your perspective.)
The central goal of this page is to clearly explain the decisions you made to two different audiences -- scrapers (quickly reading the page, i.e., a recruiter) and diggers (deeply reading the page, i.e., a hiring manager). Thus, organization, clarity, and detail are important.
In the process of explaining your process, use a 4-part model (this applies to all sections of the page below): What did you do? Why was in necessary to do it? How did you do it (i.e., the actual process), What did you produce?
Could someone totally unfamiliar with applied ethnography and an expert at applied ethnography both read this page and understand that you know your stuff? This is the gold standard of a Process Page done well.

Grading

You'll be graded on content and design (see the Process Page prompt for a rubric):
Content will be graded on your ability to convince the reader of your familiarity with applied ethnography as well as your ability to explain your work to someone not familiar with applied ethnography. This also means that part of the grade will reflect the quality and clarity of your writing; so please proofread, revise, and edit your work.
Design will be graded on how your Process Page looks. Much in the same way that you’ll be judged by your work on the job market, you’ll also be judged by the design of your Process Pages. Use that feeling as a guide for how much care and attention you should put into the details (i.e., margins, padding, spacing, alignment, visual rhythm, information hierarchy, etc.).
You're required to have a minimum of two meaningful citations from class readings (either from Sam Ladner's Practical Ethnography or articles read in class). These citations should include specific page numbers and be formatted as such, e.g., (Lander, 142) or (142) if the author's name is mentioned in the sentence. These citations should be placed at the end of a sentence.

Executive Summary

This section acts as a summary of your entire page. Or, put differently, what are the important things someone might want to know at a glance? This is an important section for job recruiters and the early stages of the interview process. Keep it short so that it exists totally (or mostly) over the scrolling break -- you will elaborate on all this information below in other sections. (Also, steer away from templates with huge hero-style image sections at top because it pushes your content down too far.) You should include all the information below in this order-ish:

Approach. Applied ethnography

Field. What was it?

Research Question. What was it?

Key Findings/Points. Bullet pointed and brief (you will elaborate below).

Research Question - Answer. In no more than a sentence.

Cohering Metaphor. In no more than a sentence.

Role. What was your specific role?

Team size. How many people were on your team?

Duration. How long did you work on this project? Be specific.

Tools. What tools did you use to complete this project?

Links. Include links to all important files and/or other relevant information.

Introduction

In this section, you will lay out what the reader will experience in more detail. In short, you are elaborating on the Executive Summary. The goal of an introduction is to set the scene for the reader and explain to them what will happen on this page.

Storytelling is impactful. Consider starting with a short story about something related to your field. This story also serves to draw in your reader and give more context to your Process Page. This could be an experience someone on the team saw in the field that helps set the stage for the reader.
Introduce applied ethnography, your field, your research question, and cohering metaphor in more depth than you did during the Exec. Summary but not in so much depth that you take away from the sections below. Note, on this page, you need to define ethnography-related jargon in your own words and explain importance.
Be clear that this was a class project and how applied ethnography was adapted for this project. This helps set expectations for the reader.
You should consider including the names/ images of the team, including Portfolio links.
Explain how the rest of the page is set up, i.e. signpost.

An image of three men in suits talking to one another.

Method

In this section, you need to clearly explain your method -- applied ethnography. Can you explain what ethnography is in your own words? Can you explain how applied ethnography differs from ethnography? Can you be specific about what an applied ethnography entails? Please note that contextual research is part of the method for ethnography (revisit Erkisson & Kovalainen here for more information).

Finally, you need to explain that this project was done for a class, there was a time frame, and that this was a team-based project.

Recruitment

In this section, you'll need to answer a few questions related to your field (see the list below). Additionally, you should, as with every step below (i.e., recruitment, fieldwork, analysis), explain why you do recruiting. Why would an applied ethnographer do recruiting?

How did you choose your field? It is okay to talk about the process we used in class for field selection.
How did your team gain consent to access this field (i.e., talking to gatekeepers)? What were the challenges of that process? How long did it take?

Fieldwork

In this section, you'll lay out the fieldwork the team did. Why do applied ethnographers do fieldwork?
In doing so, you will consider the following points:

How long was the team in the field (total hours)? How did the team do fieldwork? Were all team members at the field at the same time or did you have to go individually? If you had to go individually, how do you think that shaped your results?
One of the things ethnography is good at is allowing the researcher to be self-referential (i.e., acknowledge themselves in the writing). Because of this, ethnographic writing tends to be good at foregrounding challenges in data collection. Some questions to consider: Did you have any issues collecting data? Did you have to change anything because of participants?
See the Observation and Interviewing sub sections below for more information.

You need to talk about both core components of fieldwork -- observation and interviewing.

Observation

How did you do observation? How did you keep a journal? (Explain how our Journals were set up, bifurcated into jottings and field notes.)
How many hours of observation did your team do? How many did you do? How many sessions did you have? How active was it? Et cetera.
Explain what changed during observation. When did you start seeing patterns? What did you learn from observation? Did your experiences the in the field change your team's research question? If so, acknowledge that and include a discussion of that in this section.

Interviews

Much of the same advice for observing applies for interviews.
Do a brief introduction of each interviewee.
How were interviews set up? Explain the roles of moderator and facilitator. Did the team do a field note after interviews?

Analysis

In this section, you'll explain how you reduced your data and drew conclusions from fieldwork. You'll explain why ethnographers do analysis and explain the steps you used to reduce and visual your data. In this process:

Explain how your team went about analysis. What type of meetings did you have? Explain clearly all the decisions your made. Explain the process your team used to "reduce" your fieldwork and seek patterns.
Explain what an ordered matrix is and the process your team went through to create your ordered matrices.
Explain how your team settled on your conceptual categories.
Explain how your team decided on an answer to your research question.
Explain how your team settled on your cohering metaphor.

Conclusion

You need to accomplish two things in the conclusion. First, you need to summarize your experience in a concise manner. Second, you need to explain discuss lessons you learned from the process. One of the things ethnography is good at is allowing the researcher to be self-referential (i.e., acknowledge themselves in the writing). Because of this, ethnographic writing tends to be good at foregrounding challenges. Did you have any issues collecting data? Did you have to change anything because of participant feedback? What would you have done differently if given another chance or more time? Employers understand that not everything works out perfectly; how you deal with adversity and how you can reflect on past projects shows your ability to grow.

Ethnography: Process Page

last update: December 2022