So what makes studies like these different from ordinary research?

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

　　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.

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

　　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.

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

　　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.

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

　　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.

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

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

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

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

　　Most researchers estimate that 70 to 80 percent 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.

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

　　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.

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