Global Research on the Cheap

What inexpensive alternatives exist for global primary ethnographic research? (Don’t worry, I’m not looking for ways to avoid it–just do more!)Some thoughts:

For Discovery Research:

  • Remote ethnography techniques like blogging or “home movies”
  • Recurring telephone interviews
  • Outsourcing to local contractors (helpful in non-english speaking countries)
  • Focus groups at international conferences
  • Grad students

For Iterative Design Feedback:

  • Scenario walkthroughs via webcast
  • Focus groups at international conferences

Flickr is very good for this and you can experiment with keywords.

http://www.nitibhan.com/perspective/2006/10/using_the_inter.html