What is Ethnography?

  Ethnography is a way of understanding. The article discusses that good ethnographers study people, go beyond the obvious, and dig for a deeper meaning. They look for the norms people have and the effect that they have on them. They also look at the processes people go through which allows them to design the right points in their journey. People make sense of the world around them by assigning meaning to their lives, which is what designers need to study. The article states that the steps to ethnography is to define the problem, rethink the problem, define the contexts, define the sample, make a game plan, enter the field, analyze and interpret, share the insights, and define opportunities. The design process can be achieved successfully if we as designers observe, converse, and capture data. This article relates to the wayfinding process because we need to study people in order to fix their problems of successfully getting to one place from another. This article helps us think as humans living in this world, not just as designers. Overall this helps us design something that is meaningful.