Paper by Bas Raijmakers, William W. Gaver and John Bishay. Presented at the conference Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) in 2006.
Abstract:
This paper shows how we can take inspiration and use
techniques from documentary film in pursuing user
research. Documentary filmmaking has a long history of
portraying everyday life in ways that leave the erratic,
elusive fabric of the everyday intact. This may be valuable
as interaction design currently embraces issues of
engagement, expression and aesthetics. We discuss key
documentary formats, and suggest that a purely
observational approach may not be most valuable for design
research. Three design documentaries are discussed to show
how different documentary approaches can be used in
practice to inform the early stages of design. We suggest
that, for design research in HCI, film can be much more
than a note-taking tool; we can use it as a means to explore,
understand and present the everyday, and benefit from
film’s capabilities to preserve ambiguities and paradoxes
instead of resolving them into univocal conclusions.
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