Auto-ethnography Research

The research project, a cross-continent collaboration between researchers in Europe and the United States, aimed to investigate the impact of autoethnography and informed participation on the outcome of design activities. As a co-researcher, my role in the project was to co-create the planning and execution of the study.

The study was conducted during a one-week design hackathon, where three teams of participants engaged in a collective design project. The teams conducted autoethnography research, shared their findings through an idea crowdsourcing platform, and tested their 3D printed prototypes with potential users.

The results of the study showed that the rapid design and informed participation strategy was efficient in the design process. However, we did not find knowledge sharing to be effective, mainly due to the absence of collaboration among teams. Despite this limitation, the study provided valuable insights into the potential benefits of incorporating autoethnography and informed participation in design activities and highlighted the importance of fostering collaboration among teams in order to maximize the effectiveness of knowledge sharing.