Ethnomethodological ethnographies have played an important role in design since Suchman's (1987) seminal work revealed that the cognitive models used as a basis for system design failed to take into account situated use and thus could lead to systems behaviour, which was incomprehensible to users. Ethnomethodological ethnographies aim to reveal the situated accomplishment of action. This in turn makes the social organisation of action visible and available to design reasoning (Button, 2000). The idea is to enhance design by enabling designers and ethnographers to explore “the practical implications for design of the incarnate social organisation of human action and how it may be supported, automated, or enhanced by a system” (Crabtree et al., 2009).

The exact role to be played by ethnography has been subject to a long, and, at times heated, debate – whether used for advancing the research field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) or requirements engineering (e.g., Viller and Sommerville, 1999). However, there is a strong consensus that ethnographies provide invaluable insights into how the orderliness of work is achieved. As Schmidt put it: