Each Sold Separately: Ethnography as a Tool for Integrating Online and Off line Use of Educational Toys

This paper describes the contributions of rapid ethnography to the design of a web-enabled educational toy, specifically installation and registration. While HCI practitioners increasingly advocate rapid ethnography for early discovery and requirements phases, we discuss the role played by ethnography that spans open ended observation, story telling, conceptual design and iterative prototype evaluation in natural environments of use. As the web enables new types of services, including educational toys, Experience Design professionals must use new methods to ensure that these services are truly intuitive and learnable. Focused on everyday environments, offline and online experiences, an ethnographic approach combined with an iterative design process helped integrate knowledge of user motivation, sensitivities and tolerances throughout the design project.