June 10, 1999, Thursday Coming Of Age In Palo Alto
By KATIE HAFNER

IN 1981, while doing postdoctoral field work in cultural anthropology, Bonnie A. Nardi lived
with villagers in Western Samoa, trying to understand the cultural reasons that people there have an average of eight children.

Today Dr. Nardi works at AT&T Labs West in Menlo Park, Calif., and has no regrets. She left academia in 1984 and is considered a pioneer among anthropologists who are employed by high-tech companies to examine consumers' behavior in their homes and offices. ''Usually people say, 'What is an anthropologist doing here?' '' Dr. Nardi said. ''But when I explain that I study how people use technology in order to get new ideas for products and services, it instantly makes sense.'' No longer do companies study consumers' psyches only by asking people what they think about technology and how they use it. Now they conduct observational research, dispatching anthropologists to employ their ethnographic skills by interviewing, watching and videotaping consumers in their natural habitats. In the past several years, companies like Apple, Motorola, Xerox and Intel, as well as telecommunications and cable companies, have brought anthropologists into the corporate fold. The goal is to apply what the anthropologists learn to new product concepts. ''It's the extreme form of understanding the customer,'' Dr. Nardi said.