Representative collections of artifacts selected by the participant for the designer-researcher
- A personal inventory allows the designer to see and understand the relevance of objects in a user’s life in order to inspire design themes and insight.
- It is most commonly solicited through paired methods such as guided tours, contextual interviews, and photo and diary studies.
- As a component of touchstone tours, participants talk about the things they own as they walk the researcher through their home or other environment.
- As an element of photo studies, participants document the objects of meaning, often with companion notations.
- Interviews probe for object meaning, the role in a participant’s life, acquisition, ...