Methods
Facts:
Lifecycle stage: User research
See also: Diary study
Contributors: Chauncey Wilson, Nigel Bevan
Version: 12/2009
Cultural Probe
Cultural probes are sets of simple artifacts (such as maps, postcards, cameras, or diaries) that are given to users for them to record specific events, feelings or interactions in their usual environment, in order to get to know them and their culture better. Cultural probes are used to uncover aspects of culture and human interaction like emotions, values, connections, and trust.
Read More About It
Boehner, K., Vertesi, J., Sengers, P., and Dourish, P. (2007). How HCI interprets the probes. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, California, USA, April 28 - May 03, 2007). CHI '07. ACM, New York, NY, 1077-1086.
This article traces the user of cultural probes and highlights the analysis and interpretation challenges and issues posed by this method.
Gaffney, G. (2006). What is a Cultural Probe?.
Gerry Gaffney provides a concise description of the cultural probe method.
Gaver, B., Dunne, T., and Pacenti, E. (1999). Design: Cultural probes. Interactions 6, 1 (Jan. 1999), 21-29.
This article provides examples of different types of cultural probes.
