By Jessika Tremblay and Lotte van Gelderen from Akendi

Nov 13th, 2025, 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Ethnography Lab Boardroom, rm 330

Where do Ethnographic Thinking (Hasbrouck 2017) and Experience Thinking (Van Gelderen 2018) overlap, and how do they diverge from Design Thinking? This session explores the intersections of these frameworks through the lens of UX research, highlighting the ongoing value of holistic, connected approaches to shaping human experience through understanding. We’ll look at how psychological insight and ethnographic praxis, or the application of academic methods such as observation, interviewing, and analysis of meaning, come together in applied contexts like UX, product design, and organizational research. In user experience design and consulting settings such as Akendi Inc., turning insights about people and culture into tangible design decisions is essential. Anthropologists, psychologists, and other qualitative researchers increasingly find a home in UX, where their ability to interpret meaning and human behavior in context helps shape better experiences.

This event brings ethnographic and psychological perspectives into conversation to reflect on the enduring, and arguably growing, value of human-powered rather than AI-generated research in an industry facing rapid technological change. Through stories of both success and failure in applying our craft to client work, we’ll explore how these human researchers work and grow in crisscrossing paths with AI, as we seek to coexist (and sometimes clash) within the evolving UX landscape. Founded in 2014, the Ethnography Lab has long served as a hub for experimenting with methods that bridge academia, industry, and public life. Over a decade later, one of the members of the Lab’s first cohort, Dr. Jessika Tremblay, returns with her colleague, Lotte Van Gelderen, as they reflect on their work together at Akendi and the lasting impact of the Lab’s collaborative spirit on their approach as UX researchers.

Lotte van Gelderen is an Experience Researcher at Akendi Inc., where she combines psychological insight with ethnographic inquiry to understand how people think, feel, and act in relation to the products and systems they use. With a background in Psychological and Population Health Sciences from the University of Toronto, she brings a deep curiosity about human motivation to her work across sectors such as healthcare, fintech, and government. At Akendi, she leads end-to-end user research, facilitates co-creative workshops, and translates complex human experiences into strategic, actionable design outcomes. Her approach is rooted in “Experience Thinking”, and centers experience as the foundation of meaningful design, integrating ethnographic and psychological perspectives to create thoughtful, human-centered solutions within an evolving, technology-driven landscape.

Dr. Jessika Tremblay received her doctorate from the Anthropology Department at the University of Toronto in 2019 and is a Senior Experience Researcher at Akendi. She was one of the original members and the first coordinator of the University of Toronto’s Ethnography Lab and teaches design research methods part time at Humber Polytechnic. As a cultural anthropologist, she continues to practice and advocate for ethnographic methods in applied research and design.

References

Hasbrouck, J. (2024). Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset (2nd ed.). Routledge.

van Gelderen, T. (2018). Experience Thinking: Creating Connected Experiences. Lioncrest Publishing.