The authors of the 2004 paper are Joëlle Bitton, Stefan Agamanolis, and Matthew Karau. At the time of publication, all three were affiliated with the Human Connectedness group at Media Lab Europe, a research partner of the MIT Media Lab
The RAW project began with the realization that, for many reasons, we don’t always have a good sense of what everyday life is like in other places in the world, and that having this sense might be helpful in improving understanding and relations between people in different cultures.
RAW is an audiovisual tool designed to capture everyday life impressions with minimal editorial interference. It records one minute of binaural audio before and after a photograph is taken, aiming to create a more immersive and unfiltered storytelling experience. The project was tested in three phases (Ireland, France, and Mali) to explore how people from different cultural contexts interact with it. The study identified four ways participants used the tool: Social glances – casual encounters and conversations, caught in activities – documenting daily tasks and routines, active documentation – more structured storytelling, sometimes with narration, intentional discourses – using the tool to make a statement or argument. The presentation of RAW content follows strict guidelines, ensuring that the captured media remains unedited and minimally mediated. The study highlights challenges in cross-cultural interaction, such as differing perceptions of the researcher's role and limitations in technological accessibility.
Question:
How this affect my design practice
Encourages designing for authenticity: Avoiding excessive curation in UX and allowing users to create their own narratives. Reinforces the importance of context in interaction design: The surrounding audio and environment add richness to an experience. Explores new ways of presenting media: The progressive zooming approach in RAW's presentation suggests alternative ways to reveal information gradually. Raises ethical considerations: When designing interactive media, how much control should the user have over editing and curation?
Possible application in my practice
User research & ethnographic studies: RAW’s approach could inspire new user experience research methods, capturing natural behaviors through audio-visual documentation. Immersive storytelling & AR/VR: The binaural recording method could enhance spatial audio experiences in augmented or virtual reality projects. Social interaction design: Designing systems that minimize external influence and let users tell their own stories could lead to more authentic social platforms. Memory preservation & digital archives: RAW’s method could be used for preserving personal and cultural histories in a more genuine, minimally mediated way.
The paper explores how interaction design has evolved from usability and utility (engineering interfaces) to designing for experience and meaning.
Three major technological shifts challenge traditional interaction design ideals:
The authors propose three new directions for interaction design:
The paper emphasizes empathy and compassion in design, pushing beyond traditional UX approaches.
Question:
How this affects my design practice:
Adopting a holistic perspective: Designing for sociotechnical systems means considering users, data, and AI as co-creators. Embracing unpredictability: Moving away from rigid usability principles and designing adaptive, evolving systems. Exploring body-centered design: Using soma design principles to create richer, more immersive interactions. Navigating complexity: Thinking beyond single products to integrated, networked experiences
Possible application in my practice:
Wearable & interactive textiles: Exploring body-centered design for smart clothing or haptic interfaces. AI-driven user experiences: Designing interfaces that learn and adapt, integrating machine learning for personalization. Cross-platform interactions: Creating seamless user journeys across multiple devices and platforms. Sustainable interaction design: Using ecological thinking to consider long-term impact on technology and society.
Exploring how designers apply ethnographic research in their practice, moving beyond traditional user-centered design methods.
Design ethnography is more than just UCD; it emphasizes observing people in their natural environments rather than just optimizing usability. Unlike usability testing, which often takes place in controlled environments, ethnographic research focuses on behaviors, social contexts, and motivations. The field has evolved from early industrial ergonomics (Henry Dreyfuss' anthropometric research) to cognitive psychology and now ethnographic approaches.
Historical Phases of People-Centered Design:
Traditional ethnography aims to understand culture and human behavior; design ethnography is applied research focused on design innovation. Design ethnography does not seek to create theories but produces insights that inspire design decisions. There is a lack of formal methodology in design ethnography, leading to variability in how designers apply research findings.
The term is often loosely applied, and different design teams define it in different ways. There is limited documentation on how insights are translated into design decisions. Ethical concerns: Who benefits from ethnographic research? How are users' contributions acknowledged?
Question:
How this affect my design practice:
Encourages me to observe users in natural settings rather than just relying on usability testing. Highlights the need to document and justify how research findings inform design decisions. Reminds me to consider ethical implications of field research, particularly in commercial settings. Suggests alternative research methods, such as participatory design, to co-create with users rather than just studying them.
Possible application in my practice:
User Research & Service Design: Using ethnographic techniques to understand hidden user needs beyond what traditional usability testing can reveal. Prototyping & Ideation: Translating real-world observations into interactive prototypes that reflect genuine user behavior. UX for Emerging Technologies: Applying ethnographic methods to AI, smart objects, or IoT systems to see how they integrate into daily life. Ethical Design Frameworks: Developing transparent ways to communicate research findings and acknowledge participants' contributions.
When we create a design, it is important not only to consider general aspects, such as psychological aspects of human behavior, but also the basic background of people, such as nationality and culture, which strongly influence how people think and behave. This reminded me of one of the lectures we had in the first semester on Graphical User Interface, where we analyzed different icon variations for the same concept (in our case, restrooms). This clearly shows that a lack of cultural awareness can also lead to an inability to create a user-friendly and easily understandable design for a specific culture
One aspect I hadn't deeply considered before is the so-called Hawthorne effect—people tend to behave differently when they are aware of being observed. This raises an important question: How can we minimize the influence of this effect when conducting user interviews to ensure the most truthful and unbiased responses? Is it sufficient to carefully formulate questions, or are there additional strategies needed to mitigate the distortion caused by observation? Is it possible to create an atmosphere where people feel so comfortable that their behavior does not change, or that any change is insignificant enough not to affect the interview?
What also sparked new thoughts for me was the exercise proposed by Joe and Aaron. The task (which took place in practice) was to describe a randomly selected object individually and then compare the answers with a partner. What was incredible was how different our descriptions of the same object were—or, on the contrary, how identical they turned out to be. This once again proves how much our experiences and the environment in which we grew up and live influence our perception and interaction with the world around us.