The impact of design ethnography and WordPress
Kristina Krause has recently finished a master’s degree in social anthropology at the University of Kent, with a thesis titled: The impact of design ethnography and WordPress | Client – web designer relationships in the nonprofit sector.
“The increasing rate of technological innovation and integration into the daily lives of many online users has spurred both the reconceptualization of the digital divide, and the promotion of user-centered research methods; that emphasize the significance of variability in technology acquisition. No longer is technology to be considered an external tool, where success depends on basic functionality, but an integrated player affected by the social relations and environment in which it resides. Through Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory in combination with actor-network theory, this study aims to look first at the systems in which nonprofits and web designers separately operate; how their processes are altered with the introduction of design ethnography and WordPress; and finally which human and nonhuman actors may be utilized in the creation of websites for nonprofits who desire technological self-sufficiency.”
