Seeing the World through the Eyes of Informal Caregivers with Cultural Probes

Abstract

To get to know your target group is a very important first step in research projects – especially when they don’t have enough time to tell you everything, like informal caregivers. During our pre-study in the project TOPIC we applied cultural probes combined with in-depth interviews and participatory observations. We asked the users to use a diary, polaroid camera, actimoClock, emoticons, social map, and picture cards for a period of 14 days. Most of these cultural probes worked well and delivered important information about users’ daily life, problems and feelings, while some were anticipated differently. The paper presents the cultural probes and their use by discussing some relevant findings.