I’m currently doing some ethnographic research that consists of 3-hour long in-home interviews and then having the participants keep a video diary using an app called MyInsights. As with any piece of technology, there’s some confusion among participants about how to use the app and so I have been exchanging texts with them about how to use the app. To my pleasant surprise, these tech support texts have actually been a great complement to the research, as it has significantly added to my empathic understanding of the participants beyond that which resulted from a single in-home interview.
Now that I think about it, this makes total sense. Each person’s personality is reflected in how they communicate–the punctuation they use, their fickleness for grammar, and the tone of their voice. And since I have a solid understanding of who the person is (from the interview), communicating with research participants afterwards has been really helpful for fleshing out my understanding of what it’s like to be them.
The bottom line: more communication = more empathy.
