Cultural Probes caputure a moment, describes history and future

In an instance things change cultural probes map the instances that make things happen

Knowing what happened is OK, knowing why makes the difference between failure and success. The exact description of a cultural probe is elusive and remains dependant upon the type of information that needs to be captured. Often a cultural probe is an artefacts introduced into a cultural context like work, school, home, or a social group with the purpose of collecting information that could not be collected otherwise.

Post cards are one method used as a response mechanism to whatever is being investigated as a way to describe the instance then are posted on to the researchers. There are many communication tools available to assist, but the most important aspect of cultural probes is to design and produce a pack of probes that are relevant to the participants and positively encourage their own use.

Cultural probes require considerable initial design prior to despatch to participants but produce high level insights, unusual associations and are an excellent tool to understand cultural context.