I was in a Qualitative Research Methods class (HCDE 498) instructed by Professor Charlotte Lee. Our task over the quarter has been to conduct a small-scale ethnographic study on a group of hobbyists. My hobby of choice is board gaming. I know people who play board games, so I knew that I would have access to a field site to do observations and I would have plenty of candidates for interviews. I am also very comfortable with the board gaming community, which is important while I am learning different types of contextual inquiry and interview techniques.
I conducted three field observations and three interviews, where the interview protocol had five questions written by the class and two questions I wrote which are more specific to board gaming. After these interviews and observations were finished, I analyzed the information from both data sets, looking for themes that could be found in both. I then wrote three memos about recurring themes in my study. The final paper is a synthesis of these three memos as well as further analysis and recommendations.
Memo: The people you play board games with
Memo: How people categorize board games
Emily Uthoff 