Ethnography involves going into the field into people's real-world contexts and observing them without interference. You can ask questions about things you observe, but never direct people's actions.
As an anthropological technique, it often involves spending months or years with a group of people. As UX practitioners, we do not have that luxury. However, spending some time with user groups can deliver a lot of the value that traditional ethnography does. Even if you only spend a few hours in someone's context, you will gain a much richer, more accurate understanding of how your website can fit into their lives.
In the example we consider here, a team is redesigning the website for ...
