Video ethnography is about documenting people and their behavior or activities in the context of a specific innovation focus via video to gain detailed, previously hidden insights.
Video ethnography is classically used in the observation phases of innovation projects, and it is almost always about detecting problems or needs that already exist but have not yet been recognized or articulated by the person themselves.
Video Ethnography continuously collects information over even longer periods of time. It encourages all forms of storytelling and provides hardened evidence. The method is very similar to Photo Ethnography, but provides additional benefits such as the moving image and also the audio information about an observed situation.
On the other hand, it should be noted that quite a bit of time has to be invested in the evaluation of video material. It is always worthwhile when it comes to very time-bound activities and when the situations are rather complex – for example, when several people interact.
In principle, video ethnography can be carried out by external as well as by in-house staff, as there is no need for special direction or output standards.
