Ethnography: Ellen Isaacs at TEDxBroadway

[Music].

40 years ago, if you sat in front of a

computer, this is what you would see:

a blinking cursor, waiting patiently for

you to tell it what to do. If you wanted

to see your files, you would type ls for

list, and then it would show you your

files like this. They'd all look the same,

even though some might be text, some

might be images.

But now, if you want to see

your files, you just open up the folder

and you look--and you can see. Some are

text, some are images, because they look

that way. If you wanted to move a file

from one folder to another, you would

type mv for move, the name of the file,

Isaac's bio.doc, and then something like

../../talks, which is the location

of the destination folder relative

to the current folder.

Now, you drag the file from one

folder to another.

We take this visual display of

our files and folders for granted, but

somebody had to think of that at a time

when everybody who used computers typed

those kinds of cryptic commands. Somebody

had to first notice that this wasn't so

easy, and second, think of a better way to

do it. Someone had to think that you

could draw little pictures of files and

folders on the screen and manipulate

them by dragging a little box around on

the tabletop. Well, those people were Doug

Engelbart and Alan Kay. Engelbart invented

the mouse, and Kay invented what's called

graphical user interfaces. At the time,

Alan Kay worked at Xerox PARC in

California, which is where I work

today. And in 1971, he said, "The best way

to predict the future is to invent it."

And that's what he did. So this was at a

time when computers looked like this: giant

boxes of technology in big rooms, hooked

up to these terminals where you

typed those commands. They were very

expensive, so you had to share them, and

people would sign up for time on the

computer. So it's not surprising that at

a time like this, Ken Olsen, the head of a

very big computer company called Digital,

said, "There's no way anyone would want a

computer in the home."

Somebody had to think that you

could take all that technology and

compress it into a little box that would

sit on the desktop, and it would be

dedicated to just one person's use. So

that's something we all take for granted

now, but at the time, that would be

extravagant. Well, those people worked at

Xerox PARC, and then in 1973, they

invented the Alto, the first graphical

personal computer. And that led to the

Apple Macintosh, the IBM PC, and now all

the slick desktop, laptop, and tablet

computers that we all use today.

So we're here today talking about

the best of what Broadway can be, and I

think that the reason that I was invited

here is that the organizers were hoping

that some of that magic from the early

PARC scientists is still lingering in the

halls where I work,

revealing to me a vision of where

you will be in 20 years. Well, I'm afraid

that hasn't happened. But there is one

bit of PARC magic that I can share with

you, and it has to do with a method that

you can use to figure it out, called

ethnography. So let's go back to the

1980s, when a Xerox copier took up an

entire room.

There was another PARC scientist,

Lucy Suchman, and she had the idea that

maybe if you're building technology for

people, you should watch them using it. So

she decided to watch some people using a

Xerox copier. She grabbed a couple of her

colleagues from down the hall and she

asked them to make copies. So I'm going

to show you a short clip of a video from

this historic moment--of these two people

making copies.

"Place 1 to 50 originals." "But wait a

minute. I have a hundred

originals." "Face up.

Place all originals against the left wall."

"We want two-sided copies." "Unload top paper tray."

"Now do we want them collated?" "What?"

"Reverse order the originals?" "You got to be kidding."

"This is definitely a bug." "Press star.

That relate to that?" "We didn't do that.

That's not this." "That's not the paper tray... It didn't say what the paper tray is, huh?"

"So our first batch--our first--is S.O.L."

"What does that mean?" "Shit."

"Well, we sure did come up with a lot of paper."

So it turns out that those

two people from down the hall are

world-renowned computer scientists. One

of them went on to win the equivalent of

the Nobel Prize in Computer Science.

So clearly, the problem is not

that the people are dumb. The problem is

with the design of the copier. Today, it

is now common practice for companies to

do what's called usability testing. But

back then, it wasn't done. Lucy Suchman

had to think of it. And she went further.

She realized that you could observe

people not just to figure out how to

make their products easier to use, but

also to figure out what products to

build in the first place. So this

practice of observing people in their

natural environments to understand their

needs is called ethnography. At the time,

it was an academic practice. It grew out

of anthropology. Lucy Suchman was the

first one to apply it to industry.

So even today, not everybody

uses ethnography. Most companies will try

to understand their customers' needs by

asking them directly, using tools like

focus groups or surveys. But asking

people to tell you what they want gets

you only so far. As the anthropologist

Margaret Mead said, "What people say, what

people do, and what people say they do

are entirely different things." When

people do their jobs--or just any

ordinary activity--much of what they do

just becomes invisible to them. It’s just

what they do. But if you watch people, you

start to realize: a lot of times, people

are working around their tools. And it’s

these gaps or problems people work

around that are

opportunities for innovation. The thing

is, a lot of times when you point them

out to people, they’ll say, “Well sure, it’s

obvious that’s a problem.” But they don’t

think to tell you about it when you ask.

To notice it, you have to get out and watch.

So I like to think of my job as an

ethnographer like this: you sit and you

watch the chaos that is human behavior.

And if you're patient, and you watch for

a while, and you have a naive state of

mind, you start to notice insights that

are obvious after you point them out. You

start to notice the hidden obvious.

Well, how does this work? What is ethnography

like? Well, let me give you two examples

from my work. So, the last couple of years,

I've been studying parking. Now, I realize

parking is an odd place to go looking

for technology opportunities. But we

all know--New Yorkers especially--that

parking is an area where there's a lot

of problems and a lot of needs not being met.

So, to study parking, my colleagues

and I have spent a lot of time hanging

around on street corners, watching cars

parking, trucks unloading,

enforcement officers giving

tickets--and we've seen a lot of things

you might expect and some that you might not.

So one of the things that we started to

notice gradually was the parking signs

and how difficult it can be to tell the

one thing you want to know quickly: Can I

park here now?--in the few seconds you

have as you're driving by. So I'm going to

show you a sign for about that amount of

time, and I want you to figure out: Can

you park here now? Let's say it's

Wednesday early in the morning at 7 a.m.

Can you park here now?

Okay. Let's look again. This is hard

not just because there's so much going

on, but you'll notice that Wednesday is

not mentioned, and 7 a.m. is not in any

of the time ranges. So you have to infer

that because it's not covered, you can

park here--at least to the left of the signs.

Okay. Here's another one. It's 3 p.m. Can you stop here now?

Okay. Let's look again. So the bottom

sign says no parking at 3 p.m., so that

implies that you can stop. And the top no

stopping sign doesn't cover 3 p.m., so

that implies again--you have to

figure out that you can stop here. Okay?

And here's one more where I challenge

you to figure out what you can do here

at any time.

The problem here is that parking

signs focus on restrictions--no this,

no that--when what you want to know is

what you can do. Now, when I say it like

this, it seems obvious. But when you go

and you ask people to tell you what are

some of the problems they have with

parking, they generally don't go

complaining and saying, "You know, parking

signs are difficult to read quickly as

you drive by because they focus on

restrictions." To really understand this,

you have to get out and watch. And it can

take a while. We—because we were looking

at so many different aspects of parking--

the signs didn't really come into focus

for us until the fourth city and over a

thousand photos and videos. Once we

noticed it, it was obvious. So, what could

you do about this? Well, one thing you

could do is redesign the signs.

Here's one possible way you

could design that second sign.

On the right, you see it's organized by

time of day from morning through night.

So, at any time, you can find now, and then

you can just look to the right and see:

Can I park? Green, yes. Red, no. Orange,

there's some kind of restriction--

deliveries only. And if you

want to be kind to internationals, you

could include symbols.

Okay. So that's one example of

how ethnography found an unmet need. Let

me give you another one. We noticed, a

lot of times when we were out looking,

that there were a lot of loading zones--

marked by yellow curbs--that weren’t

being used. Here we are, looking for a

parking spot, and it's just loading as

far as the eye can see, and not very many

trucks using it--and yet, we can't park.

On the other hand, we saw a lot of times

when trucks were trying to make

deliveries and couldn’t find a loading zone.

And since they have to park near

where they're going to be delivering,

they get creative. So they double park

and they block in cars--both diagonal and

parallel. They park in the median,

blocking cars from turning left. They

park in the crosswalk, blocking

people from crossing the street. And they

park on the sidewalk.

So the problem here is that

loading zones take up precious parking

resources, and yet they don’t really meet

the need. Again, I point this out--it seems

obvious--but when we talk to people about

their parking problems, they don’t say,

“Loading zones are inefficient.” They say,

“There’s not enough parking.” So, what can

you do about this? Well, what you’d really

like to do is to have the spots for

loading when they’re needed and then

make them available to everyone else

when they’re not. This is something

we’re doing right now. We have built a

prototype parking meter that can change

its state--from parking to loading, no

parking, and other states. And since trucks

have GPSs--oops, so they have GPSs and

they know where they’re going--we

can take a spot and change it from

parking to loading. And then, when they

come and they park, they can put it back to parking.

Okay. So what does all this have

to do with Broadway?

Well, what I'm trying to say is

that--well, I don't know what you need to

do to make Broadway the best it can be--

you can get some ideas by using

ethnography. It's a very general tool.

We've used it in many different domains--

hospitals, nursing, call centers, retail

stores, young people using mobile devices,

lots more—and you could use it on Broadway.

You could accompany a family

as they're spending a day out on Broadway.

Or you could watch someone as

they're planning a day--or an evening--

for a night out and a show. Or you could

just hang out at the ticket booth and

watch people buying tickets, or people

checking into hotels, or people choosing

a restaurant, or window shopping, or going

to a show. All those things. And maybe, if

you're patient and you do it for a while

and you keep a naive state of mind, maybe

you will discover the hidden obvious.

Maybe you'll be the one to think of a

novel idea that people will take for

granted in 20 years. Thank you.

[Music].