This is an interesting spin through Design Anthropology, an important (and my favorite!) branch of design research.  It's as a response to a critique, which you have to get through before you get to the good stuff.

I don't say everything the same way as Dori Tunstall, the author, but her approach mimics mine quite well: we need to find and describe the humanness in the people we are building our solution for. This is true understanding.

Dori's Moblog: Design Anthropology: Response to Yoko Akama