Recording ethnographic observations: Six useful frameworks

If you've done any ethnography of any form you'll know that it's mighty difficult for several reasons.

1. Sometimes it feels like there's so much to write you can't possibly get it all down
2. Sometimes it feels like there's nothing new to see and you can't see anything worth writing about
   
3. It's really tough to keep your observations in any kind of structured manner to find useful information from them later
   
4. Although you may be writing like crazy you find later you missed the all important parts of the scene
   

In response to each of these struggles several frameworks have been suggested to help you write meaningfully and fast, keep you writing, and give structure to your observations. The six I am aware of, and that have a striking similarity, are:

1. 9 Dimensions of descriptive observation - Spradley, 1980
   
2. AEIOU - eLab
   
3. A(x4) Model - Rothstein, 2001
   
4. Bringing the Outside In - Sotirin, 1999
   
5. POSTA - (tracked as far as Pat Sachs and Gitte Jordan)
6. POEMS - Kumar and Whitney, 2003
   

-- update: I added the POEMS framework thanks to Jaspal's comment --

Each framework attempts to recreate a similar result with perhaps the major differences being that Spradley's framework encourages you to divide up the world more explicitly into smaller categories, and that each of the others AEIOU, POSTA, POEMS and A(x4) have catchy names and a smaller number of categories allowing you to remember them all.

The Table below shows how they all stack up. Spradley's Goals and Feelings are notable extensions to the other frameworks encouraging the user to focus on things that aren't necessarily visible.


1/ 9 Dimensions of descriptive observation
Spradley, J. P. (1980) and Robson, C. (2002). (I believe the framework is Spradley's)

1. SPACE - layout of the physical setting; rooms, outdoor spaces, etc.
2. ACTORS - the names and relevant details of the people involved
3. ACTIVITIES - the various activities of the actors
4. OBJECTS - physical elements: furniture etc.
5. ACTS - specific individual actions
6. EVENTS - particular occasions, e.g. meetings
7. TIME - the sequence of events
8. GOALS - what actors are attempting to accomplish
9. FEELINGS - emotions in particular contexts
   

2/ AEIOU
The Doblin Group/eLab

1. A - Activities are goal directed sets of actions-things which people want to accomplish
2. E - Environments include the entire arena where activities take place
3. I - Interactions are between a person and someone or something else, and are the building blocks of activities
4. O - Objects are building blocks of the environment, key elements sometimes put to complex or unintended uses, changing their function, meaning and context
5. U - Users are the consumers, the people providing the behaviors, preferences and needs (E-Lab 1997)

Descriptions from Christina Wasson's Ethnography in the field of design

3/ A(x4)
Rothstein, P. (2001).

1. Atmosphere
2. Actors
3. Artifacts
4. Activities

4/ Bringing the Outside In
Sotirin, P. (1999).

1. Territory - including space and architecture
2. Stuff - furniture, possession, private/public, visual signs, technology
3. People - flows, dress, bodies, nonverbal behaviors, authority, affection
4. Talk - conversation, vocabularies

5/ POSTA
Tracked as far as Pat Sachs (Social Solutions) and Gitte Jordan (Institute for Research on Learning)

1. P - Person
2. O - Objects
3. S - Situations
4. T - Time
5. A - Activity

6/ POEMS
Kumar and Whitney, 2003

1. P - People
2. O - Objects
3. E - Environments
4. M - Messages
5. S - Services

According to Kumar and Whitney: "The POEMS framework helps researchers tag video observations of user interactions by giving them lists of words in five categories."

It would be possible to write a separate article on how to best use each one but a method that has worked OK for me, following Dev Patnaik's example, is to divide a notebook page up into columns for each category and scribble away. Alternatively, simply write the names at the edge of each notebook page and use them as a memory jog whenever you encounter one of the four problems at the beginning of this article. Or, with experience, simply keep the acronyms in your head and make them a mental checklist as you go about your observing.

If anyone knows of any more frameworks for observation I'd love to add them to the list.

References:

• Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Robson, C. (2002). Real World Research. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
• Rothstein, P. (2001). a(x 4): A user-centered method for designing experience. 2001
• IDSA Education Conference Proceedings, Boston, Massachusetts
• Sotirin, P. (1999). Bringing the Outside In: Ethnography in/beyond the Classroom, Presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association Conference, Ethnography Division, Chicago, Illinois, November 4-7, 1999.
• Kumar V, Whitney P. Faster, Cheaper, Deeper User Research. Design Management Journal (Spring 2003): 50-57.