Toward an Ethnography of Friction and Ease in Complex Systems
This paper offers frameworks and tools to support complexity- and systems-oriented approaches in design ethnography. The products and processes ethnographers wo...
Government Forms as Friction: Identifying Opportunities for Innovation at the Intersection of Staff and Resident Needs
This paper explores a key friction in service delivery that is inherent in forms – the ubiquitous and seemingly mundane conduit between institutions and peopl...
The Uncommon Good: Making Room for Radical Transition Imaginaries
Public, social and community organizations are, in many locales, driving systems change toward social and economic equity and environmental justice. But their v...
In Pursuit of Authenticity: Commodified Community, Curated Experience, and Fandom
This paper assesses the economic impacts of hyper-monetization, immersive advertising, and general shifts in gaming’s fandom subcultures over the past dec...
Friction into Traction: A Case Study of Friction in Strategic Ethnography
This case study highlights the transformative power of strategic ethnography in shaping frameworks that gain traction within organizations. We analyze three pro...
A Tale of Two Frictions: Building Ethical Software Solutions by Challenging Tech’s Obsession with Efficiency
The enterprise technology ethos of efficiency biases corporate software development towards seamlessness. What happens when that ethos contradicts its clients&#...
Introducing Ethnographic Practice to a 100-Year-Old Corporation in a Highly Regulated Industry
The Gulf Coast of the USA encompasses impoverished communities, vibrant urban centers, farms, and a rich culture. Climate change impacts are severe, yet residen...
Local Frictions in the Energy Transition: Design Anthropology for the Emergence of Energy Communities
Critical challenges in energy transitions are social and cultural – not just technical and economic. This paper shares research in an interdisciplinary co...
Observing Friction through Ethnography and Experience Prototyping in the Postpartum Period
During the postpartum period, significant clinical and social supports exist for the care and wellness of a newborn baby. Yet over the same six weeks, new moms ...
How Friction Led to a More Intentional Stakeholder Feedback Model for a Federal Research Program
This paper describes the evolution of the “intentional” model for stakeholder feedback that mitigates risk and improves outcomes. The All of Us Research Pro...
Frictions in the Future of Work
The concept of the “future of work”, though widely-referenced in mainstream media and policy discourse, remains persistently ambiguous, making it ri...
Fluid Friction: The Case for Friction in Public Safety Design
I Don’t Know What To Do… The moment she heard the beep come through her headset, Tess switched gears immediately. Moments earlier, she’d just wrapped up a...