breakthrough ideas

I've just finished reading the book:
Squires, S. E., & Byrne, B. (2002). Creating breakthrough ideas : the collaboration of anthropologists and designers in the product development industry. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.

It's a collection of discussions about how ethnography can be used practically in the business world. Several of the articles offer practical demonstrations of how ethnographic approaches resulted in startling results. There is a lot of discussion about the roles of researchers vs. designers and the various methods that they use. The question of how requirements/observations are translated into design ideas is not really addressed and several of those advocating design perspectives still don't appear to understand the importance of usability in resulting designs. Definitely worth a read if you want a non-theoretical take on ethnography. Particularly the chapter by Susan Squires describing observations of breakfast habits, and another by Charles Leinbach discussing RV tribes are fascinating.

ta to Jared for the reference