- Looking at peoples' every day lives and behaviors—understand what motivates them. - Researchers observe and/or interact with a study's participants in their real-life environment. - Focus on developing an understanding of the design problem. - Entails examining - Timeline: - Beginning of the project. Learnings are used to support future design decisions. - Cons: - Can be time consuming. - Methods: - [[Diary studies]] - [[Direct observation]] - Research:: - [When and How to Use Ethnographic Research](https://www.spotless.co.uk/insights/ethnography-when-and-how/) by Ben Logan - [Ethnography (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography)