Ethnographic design

Workshop - one week
Client project for Emmaüs - Connexions solidaires February 2015

The Emmaüs Connect association works with digital tools to promote social integration. They encourage people with little or no knowledge of information technology (homeless people, immigrants or the elderly) to learn new skills in order to facilitate professional rehabilitation. We worked in their parisian office over the course of a week with the objective of improving use of space as well as the perception that beneficiairies have of the space and its employees.

We conducted an ethnographic study to understand the perception that different players had of this environment, the importance of each one within the organization and the influence of this environment on the beneficiairies. We also studied the relationships within the teams of volunteers as well as between volunteers and beneficiairies. We identified mulitple problems and responded with an ensemble of ideas: a new way to organize the space and teams, a new position which would allow people who had previously benefited from the association to themselves teach and a new waiting room.

This experience was extremely interesting as it allowed us to learn the ropes of such an association and find solutions to real problems instead of hypotheses. This was a very efficient and interesting way of working, one that I would like to use again in the future.