Ethnography
With this project I have realised my interest lies predominantly in designing for people. Throughout this project I have endeavored to keep people at the centre of my process, and through predominantly ethnographic techniques I have obtained a great deal of information. I have found that speaking to different people is a highly effective way of gaining a well-rounded understanding of a subject. I have predominantly used conversations with experts to get their opinions and views, and have also used direct observation of the environment and situations.
I would like to have conducted more in depth observations, and as I stated in the last section I had intended to do this by taking in a video camera to document the events. However this was not possible, as I did not receive confirmation from the Education Board to go ahead. This was again frustrating as the school were happy for me to go in and they said that it was likely that I would get consent from parents. Nonetheless I realised that formalities such as this are commonplace and that they are there for good reason.
In the sections below I have documented the conversations I had with experts and also the observations, which I completed.