ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the essential features of the innovative and adaptable methodology which enabled us to collect a wide range of workplace data in very disparate contexts. Gathering good data in the wide diversity of places where people spend their working day poses a formidable range of methodological challenges. The data collection methodology was developed in a third direction in order to meet the challenges of recording in busy environments where participants were engaged in physical activities entailing lots of movement and often a good deal of noise. The chapter describes the participatory research model, which was initially evolved in response to the particular challenges inherent in collecting a large amount of natural interaction data in a workplace setting. Finally, the chapter illustrates how the approach was adapted to cope with the distinctly different challenges posed by the talking conditions in different workplaces.
