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So what I'm going to talk about to you today is something called Ethnography.

今天我来讲一下人种学。

This is a type of research aimed at exploring the way human cultures work.

这是关于探索人类文化运作方式的研究。

It was first developed for use in anthropology, and it's also been used in sociology and communication studies.

它曾隶属于人类学，也隶属于过社会学和传播学。

So what's it got to do with business, you may ask.

你们可能会问，现在它跟商业有什么关系。

Well, businesses are finding that ethnography can offer them deeper insight into the possible needs of customers, either present or future, as well as providing valuable information about their attitudes towards existing products.

嗯，商业发现人种学可以帮助他们更好的了解潜在客户，无论是现在还是未来，还可以提供关于他们对于现有商品的看法的非常有价值的信息。

And ethnography can also help companies to design new products or services that customers really want.

人种学可以帮助企业设计客户真正想要的新产品和服务。

Let's look at some examples of how ethnographic research works in business.

让我们看一下人种学研究如何应用到商业的。

One team of researchers did a project for a company manufacturing kitchen equipment.

曾有一组研究员为一个生产厨具的公司做过研究。

They watched how cooks used measuring cups to measure out things like sugar and flour.

他们曾观察厨师如何利用量杯测量像糖和面粉这些物品。

They saw that the cooks had to check and recheck the contents, because although the measuring cups had numbers inside them, the cooks couldn't see these easily.

他们发现厨师需要不时确认分量。虽然量杯上有刻度，但是厨师看着不是很方便。

So a new design of cup was developed to overcome this problem, and it was a top seller.

所以新型量杯发明了出来并解决了这一问题，现在已经成为畅销品了。

Another team of ethnographic researchers looked at how cell phones were used in Uganda, in Africa.

另一组人种学研究员曾观察过非洲乌干达的手机使用情况。

They found that people who didn't have their own phones could pay to use the phones of local entrepreneurs.

他们发现那些没有手机的人更倾向于买当地手机。

Because these customers paid in advance for their calls, they were eager to know how much time they'd spent on the call so far.

因为这些客户已经提前为他们的通话买单了，他们很想知道自己已经打过几次电话了。

So the phone company designed phones for use globally with this added feature.

所以通讯公司在设计可以全球通话的新手机上加入了这一功能。

Ethnographic research has also been carried out in computer companies.

人种学研究还投入到计算机厂商中。

In one company, IT systems administrators were observed for several weeks.

有家公司的IT系统管理员已经被观察好几周了。

It was found that a large amount of their work involved communicating with colleagues in order to solve problems, but that they didn't have a standard way of exchanging information from spreadsheets and so on.

研究发现，他们大部分工作需要和其他同事沟通才能解决问题，但是他们在交流时并未将信息整理罗列出标准解决方案。

So the team came up with an idea for software that would help them to do this.

所以这个研究小组设计出了一款软件帮助他们去解决这一问题。

In another piece of research, a team observed and talked to nurses working in hospitals.

另一组研究员对医院的护士进行了观察和沟通。

This led to the recognition that the nurses needed to access the computer records of their patients, no matter where they were.

他们发现无论在哪里，护士都需要访问电脑才能查询病人记录。

This led to the development of a portable computer tablet that allowed the nurses to check records in locations throughout the hospital.

于是研究员研制了便携计算机帮助护士在医院内任何地方都可以查询记录。

Occasionally, research can be done even in environments where the researchers can't be present.

有时候研究员甚至还为环境方面做出了贡献，即使研究员自己无法现身研究。

For example, in one project done for an airline, respondents used their smartphones to record information during airline trips, in a study aiming at tracking the emotions of passengers during a flight.

比如，有个关于航空的研究，受访者通过电话记录下了每次飞行的信息，研究员会追踪每次飞行时客户的情绪。

So what makes studies like these different from ordinary research?

那么是什么让人种学研究如此与众不同？

Let's look at some of the general principles behind ethnographic research in business.

让我们看一下商业研究背后人种学的一些通则。

First of all, the researcher has to be completely open-minded - he or she hasn't thought up a hypothesis to be tested, as is the case in other types of research.

首先，这需要研究员视野非常开阔，他/她不能对虚构的假设进行试验，而其他类型的研究通常可以这样做。

Instead they wait for the participants in the research to inform them.

而他们需要做的是等研究的参与者主动联系他们。

As far as choosing the participants themselves is concerned, that's not really all that different from ordinary research - the criteria according to which the participants are chosen may be something as simple as the age bracket they fall into, or the researchers may select them according to their income, or they might try to find a set of people who all use a particular product, for example.

一旦选择了参与者，人种学研究也就和其他研究差不多。而选择参与者的标准有时候很简单，比如按年龄选择，或是按收入，再或是选择某一类使用同一产品的参与者。

But it's absolutely crucial to recruit the right people as participants.

当然，挑选合适的参与者至关重要。

As well as the criteria I've mentioned, they have to be comfortable talking about themselves and being watched as they go about their activities.

就像我之前说的标准，这些参与者必须在舒适自然的状态下谈论他们的感受、参与活动并被研究员观察。

Actually, most researchers say that people open up pretty easily, maybe because they're often in their own home or workplace.

事实上，很多研究员说那些参与者很放松，可能是因为他们主要往返于家和单位。

So what makes this type of research special is that it's not just a matter of sending a questionnaire to the participants, instead the research is usually based on first-hand observation of what they are doing at the time.

让这种研究有别于其他研究的是，研究员并不是只做问卷调查，他们还会获得最及时的观察数据。

But that doesn't mean that the researcher never talks to the participants.

但也不是说观察员不会和参与者沟通。

However, unlike in traditional research, in this case it's the participant rather than the researchers who decides what direction the interview will follow.

而不同于传统研究，采访方向大多由参与者而不是研究员决定。

This means that there's less likelihood of the researcher imposing his or her own ideas on the participant.

这也就是说，研究员不会将自己的想法强加于参与者身上。

But after they've said goodbye to their participants and got back to their office, the researchers' work isn't finished.

当研究员结束与参与者的采访，回到他们的工作室，他们的工作并未结束。

Most researchers estimate that 70 to 80 per cent of their time is spent not on the collecting of data but on its analysis - looking at photos, listening to recordings and transcribing them, and so on.

很多研究员说他们70-80%的工作不是收集数据而是分析数据:观察照片、听录音、记笔记等等。

The researchers may end up with hundreds of pages of notes.

研究员可能会写上百页的备注。

And to determine what's significant, they don't focus on the sensational things or the unusual things, instead they try to identify a pattern of some sort in all this data, and to discern the meaning behind it.

然后判断哪些是有用的。他们不会关注那些夸大的或是不寻常的信息，而是将这些数据分类定义，然后辨别其中的含义。

This can result in some compelling insights that can in turn feed back to the whole design process.

最后可能会得出一些令人叹服的观点，然后他们可以将其反馈到整个设计流程中。