Computational Ethnography: Automated and Unobtrusive Means for Collecting Data In Situ for Human–Computer Interaction Evaluation Studies

Computational ethnography is an emerging family of methods for conducting human–computer interaction (HCI) studies in healthcare. Computational ethnography often leverages automated and less obtrusive means for collecting in situ data that reflect end users’ true, unaltered behaviors of interacting with a software system or a device in naturalistic settings. In this chapter, we introduce the concept of computational ethnography and common types of digital trace data available in healthcare environments, as well as commonly used approaches to analyzing computational ethnographical data. At the end of the chapter, we use two use cases to illustrate how this new family of methods has been applied in healthcare to study end users’ interactions with technological interventions in their everyday routines.