Ethnographic interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Ethnographic interview - Essay Example They gradually increased the tenure of engagement in these locations and the twentieth century saw the rise of long-term fieldwork with participant observation. According to Whyte, â€Å" When the researcher is living for an extended period in the community he is studying, his personal life is inextricably mixed with his research. A real explanation of how the research was one necessarily involves a rather personal account of how the researcher lived during the period of his study. This account of living in the community may help also to explain the process of analysis of the data†¦ the actual evolution of research ideas does not take place in accord with the formal statements we read on research methods. The ideas grow in part out of our immersion in the data and out of the whole process of living.† (1955, 279) While the above excerpt explains the process of ethnographic research, it also implies some underlying strengths as well as weaknesses of the process. The most evident and likely of all the risks is the idea of ‘going native’ and this would depend on the degree of involvement of the ethnographer with the surroundings. (Schutt, 2006 307) Ethnography helps in developing a user interface where the most important goal is to look at the system from the user’s viewpoint. This method helps in satisfying the needs of the end-user. Thus this method helps in a strong and effective assessment of the unspoken needs of the user. An ethnographer is supposed to accomplish all the tasks and understand all the relationships that integrate to form the job of the user. There is more scope and opportunity for an extensive research since it requires an unstructured form of data collection. The user can carry out his job and communicate even outside the official instructions  or job description. Sometimes when the real end user is not accessible, the ethnographer, owing to the high degree of understanding required in fieldwork, can act like the end-user