AEIOU

A framework for structuring field observations

This can be used to guide any ethnographic or observational method, corresponding to five interrelated elements:

• Activities are goal-directed sets of actions or the pathways that people take toward the things they want to accomplish.
• Environments include the context in which activities take place, including the atmosphere and function of individual and shared spaces.
• Interactions are the routine and special exchanges between people and between people and objects in the environment.
• Objects are the key elements of the environment, sometimes put to complex or even unintended uses.
• Users are the people whose behaviors, preferences, and needs are being observed, including their roles and relationships.