Qualitative research methods in design and development

In recent years, we have seen an increase in the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods for the design of systems. This rise has been motivated , at least in part, by the following factors: the need to understand user work before design begins; the inadequacy of many traditional forms of data and requirements gathering when applied to interface design problems; the need to involve users in the design process; and the increasing recognition that the transition to a modern interface metaphor, that is, a GUI, is insufficient to produce a usable system. At the same time, we have learned that qualitative and ethnographic methods of data collection and analysis are not simply new and different methods that can be directly " plugged into " an existing development process. The methods, procedures, and fundamental assumptions of qualitative techniques have a different origin than those of classic engineering approaches. Qualitative approaches fly in the face of the engineering and marketing cultures in many companies. It's not surprising that many designers who have introduced these techniques have also described themselves as cultural change agents and offer prescriptions for cultural change and alternative approaches to engineering systems [1, 15]. The discrepancies between the engineering culture and the roots of qualitative research are often implicit, and are the source of