Three and a half years ago, the group was set up when the company began considering other consumer products after releasing its Pentium processor. We thought maybe we should understand more about the home. The group members embarked on a study of 10 families with young children. They visited each family for an evening, eating dinner with the family and analyzing the organization of the home and the family's daily routine. Dr. Salvador's group found that the kitchen and family room were the most important rooms in the house.
Social relationships are very important.
Dr. Salvador's findings may not seem like much of an epiphany, but his work has helped lead Intel to look beyond the notion of a PC as a device generally used by someone seated at a desk alone in a room and to understand the importance of whole families using and sharing computing devices. Ms. McClard and Anderson are part of Media One's Broadband Innovation Group. To study Internet usage patterns, companies also install tracking systems on subjects' computers. But those kinds of studies are a poor substitute for the serendipitous twists and turns of actual interviews, anthropologists say. Dr. Nardi said it was also important to couple interviews with observations to pick up on the knowledge and behavior people exhibit but do not think to mention.