Ethnographic Research at Intel

Linked from Experientia blog Putting People First is an article on how innovation is done at Intel these days "Making computing a people science". The article especially focuses on how Intel team of social scientists help to spur innovation that truly addresses customer needs.

Nothing really revolutionary in the model that is introduced in the article. It is basically a SET (Social, Economic, Technological) model, used to make sure design is considered from every point of view:

• Social: Does the design address a need of customers or could create one?
  
• Economic: Is the design viable financially?
• Technological: Is the technology available to bring the design to reality?

But it is interesting to see that ethnographic research is applied, at it should, to any industry. The IT and software industries formerly based their processes on very strict sequential models and should definitely wake up to the call and get into their users' lives much more.