Herbalism Snapshot Reflection

Ethnography is the study and systematic recording of human cultures. I had the privilege to look closely at Lisa Hassan’s, a mother of three and a herbal remedy aficionado, culture. As a design student, all my designs are intended for use by people, but I have never had the opportunity to focus an entire project on a person/culture. This video snapshot gave me the opportunity to get out of the studio and my own work and focus on human interaction in design. I was able to see somebody else’s making and how they have mastered it. This in turn, helped my video editing and my next knowledge map artifact. As a designer, this is the most important part of what we do.
Next time I would probably get more shots of a variety of things. I would have her making more potions and basically dive deeper into what she does. However, this was difficult because she is busy and I did not what to inconvenience my subject in any way. I would also try to get a better video/audio quality. In editing my video, I learned that off camera shots are very important in setting the scene, and a variety of shots are very important in order to make an interesting video. I also learned that background noise is very noticeable, and I should not give vocal responses to my questions. However, given the limited time we had to conduct the interview, I believe it was a good snapshot of Lisa Hassan “Potion Master”.

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