Contemporary everyday cultures are increasingly pervaded by digital platforms, making a rethinking of observational research into sociocultural phenomena necessary. Observational practices that remain confined to physical localities face various impasses in the era of digital platforms. Combining participant observation in workplaces where digital platforms are accessed with technical walkthroughs of their interfaces, I make a case for renewing interface ethnography. On one hand, technical walkthroughs reveal the sociocultural assumptions embedded in interfaces and the ways in which their affordances generate symbolic meanings. However, on the other hand, participant observation foregrounds emic perspectives on digital platforms within communities of practice. Based on an ethnographic study of a Norwegian software firm, I argue that the integration of the walkthrough method with participant observation enables researchers to trace the twofold meaning construction inherent in communities of practice whose skilled labor is orientated toward digital platforms. This fusion of methods expands the scope of ethnographic knowledge across the digital-physical continuum.

数字平台日益渗透着当代的日常文化，因此有必要重新思考对社会文化现象的观察研究。在数字平台时代，仍然仅限于物理场所的观测实践面临各种僵局。我将在访问数字平台的工作场所中的参与者观察与他们的界面的技术演练相结合，为更新界面民族志提供了理由。一方面，技术演练揭示了界面中嵌入的社会文化假设以及它们的承受能力产生象征意义的方式。但是，另一方面，参与者的观察前景则是实践社区内数字平台上的独特观点。根据一家挪威软件公司的人种学研究，我认为，演练方法与参与者观察的集成使研究人员能够追溯其实践劳动面向数字平台的实践社区中固有的双重含义。方法的这种融合将人种学知识的范围扩展到整个数字物理连续体。