Cultural Probe applied to business environment

1. What are cultural probes used for?
2. What are some of the common features of cultural probes?
3. What is a cultural probe in research?

What are cultural probes used for?

What are cultural probes? Cultural probes — often also called diary study — are a research method that helps to understand the everyday challenges, goals and needs of users at the beginning of a design process. Participants document and reflect on certain aspects of their lives over a longer period of time.

What are some of the common features of cultural probes?

Typical questions in a cultural probe are based on the basic interrogatives: what, when, where, why, who, and how. And just as important as “How are users interacting?” is “How are users feeling?” Ratings can be useful for feelings so that interactions can be measured by emotion.

What is a cultural probe in research?

Cultural probes are an approach to qualitative user research where face-to-face research is impractical or inappropriate. They consist of prompts, questions and instructions along with artifacts for recording thoughts and feelings. The artifacts may be as simple as a diary or as elaborate as a single-use camera.