INDIVIDUAL HOMEWORK 3 - ETHNOGRAPHY
The activity I picked is using the recyclers inside the diners to categorize your trash. The reason why I picked this activity is that because I always thought the process was more effort requiring than it should be. With a better interface, people could get away with spending less time thinking about what should go in which bin.
Separating the trash for recycling starts with the person gathering their trash and bringing it near the recycle bins. Then the user is supposed to decide the bin that they are going to throw into for each piece of trash. There are signs and guides on the bins to help them with the decision process.
There were many people engaging in the activity individually. Almost every person has trash to throw out after eating in a diner and they need to go through this process to resolve the issue. I have observed many kinds of people but the diversity did not have much effect on the process and the outcome. They did not use any artifacts other than their hands.
I interviewed a male Russian sophomore. He also thought the process was tedious and he thought that a better system for separation of trash would make life easier for the humanity.
I also interviewed a female Indian female junior. She stated that she did not really thought about this process thoroughly before. She added that she was okay with how the things worked currently.
My last interview was with a female American sophomore. She did not think about it before, too. She thought that a change in the separation system might be good but it is not really necessary.
The people who engage in this activity generally follow the following set of actions. First, they take their trash near the bin. Then, they take one item that is the easiest to dispose of without messing up the balance of other items in their hand. Basically they choose the one that is with the least contact with them. After that, they decide which bin would fit to that item the most. After this decision has been made, they proceed to throw the item inside the decided bin. If a decision takes longer that the time span given to the activity by the user, they throw the item into the regular trash bin.
There were several outliers that follow a different course of action. Two people threw every item into the regular trash bin, probably being in a hurry. Another person threw everything inside a random recycling bin, hopefully for the same reason.
There were many people engaging in the activity individually. Almost every person has trash to throw out after eating in a diner and they need to go through this process to resolve the issue. I have observed many kinds of people but the diversity did not have much effect on the process and the outcome. They did not use any artifacts other than their hands.
I interviewed a male Russian sophomore. He also thought the process was tedious and he thought that a better system for separation of trash would make life easier for the humanity.
I also interviewed a female Indian female junior. She stated that she did not really thought about this process thoroughly before. She added that she was okay with how the things worked currently.
My last interview was with a female American sophomore. She did not think about it before, too. She thought that a change in the separation system might be good but it is not really necessary.
The people who engage in this activity generally follow the following set of actions. First, they take their trash near the bin. Then, they take one item that is the easiest to dispose of without messing up the balance of other items in their hand. Basically they choose the one that is with the least contact with them. After that, they decide which bin would fit to that item the most. After this decision has been made, they proceed to throw the item inside the decided bin. If a decision takes longer that the time span given to the activity by the user, they throw the item into the regular trash bin.
There were several outliers that follow a different course of action. Two people threw every item into the regular trash bin, probably being in a hurry. Another person threw everything inside a random recycling bin, hopefully for the same reason.
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