For the redesign, I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone and create a video. Rather than empty out, arrange, and take a photo of the contents of my bag, I’m going to get my husband to put together a bag and then I’m going to attempt to pull the bag apart blindfolded and describe the contents. At the end, I will pull off the blindfold and say what was in the bag. This changes modes from being more text-based to audio-visual based.
My husband told me that he out together the bag with the idea of it belonging to a travel vlogger. The harmonica is there because he said they typically travel alone and so they would want an easy way to entertain themselves. The book of ethics is because of the potential for ethical problems when travelling. The hardrive is so they have a place to store their videos until they have a chance to edit and upload. A vlogger would be literate in video technologies, new marketing, such as ones like YouTube and Pateron, as well as culture and geography.
I didn’t realize how easy it would be for me to guess the objects, but I was limited because of Covid. I tried to figure out the persona of the person with the bag. My final guess was that this was a commuter bag for a professor.
I often find that text is more thoughtful and reflective, in my own experiences. With text, I can reread, edit, remove, and add as I please. Although this is possible with video, it is significantly more difficult to accomplish. With the video, it’s more about gut reactions and initial thoughts. It is important to examine both first impressions as well as longer term reflections. Do they match? Why not? Is that okay? If not, how should it be changed?