Maryam Al kaabi

Overview 4
Concept 6
Data Collection 8
Layout 10
Widgets 12
Reflective Essay 14
An ebook is a book in electronic format. It is downloaded
through any kind of reading device. The ultimate advantage
of an ebook is that it is portrable and that you can access
it anywhere at anytime and under any circumstances. It is
easy accessed via the internet in terms of how it is being
provided. However, the greater advantage of having an ebook
is that it allows the option for the addition of multimedia.
Whether it was a video, images or sounds and have it all being
interactive.

Exploring a new form of expression of shaping content, for this

assignment we were to create an ebook based on any content
of our desire. Understanding a new mode of pubilishing, we
used the application ibook author to do so. We were given the
freedom of choosing what kind of content we were to choose.
Exploring and learning something about a country's past
and traditions was my main goal for this project. I chose to
exlore about the traditionl herbs remedies they used to use as
treatments back in the day.

The purpose of this topic is learn about the simple homemade

remedies that you could do at home using easily found herbs
within the UAE with ingredients you have in your home.
DATA
I started with not having any background information about
this topic, therefore I started my research by asking around
including parents, grandmothers and furthemore through out
the project I visited the local shops.

I used online sources as well to learn about the diiferent types

of herbs and plants we have. As i found around fifteen in total,
i narrowed them down to the main ones.

https://www.haad.ae/HAAD/tabid/792/Default.aspx
INTRODUCTION
A while back,when there were no such thing as hospitals or
doctors, traditional herbs were the most important type of .
medicine people used as treatments. In other words, these .
herbs were equivalent to our current pharmacies and were .
found at the healers.
.
Healers, 'Medawi' in arabic, were equilivent to current doctors.
There were very few of them back in the days and most of
them were spread around within the cities. Patients came to .
them from hours or even days away for these treatments.

Medicine dealers were called 'Al Atareen' in arabic. Their job

was to import the plants and herbs that were hard/not found in
the UAE from India, yemen and Africa.
. .

Over the period of time between now and the past, medicine
has evolved tramendosly. The healer got replaced by the
doctor, medicine dealers got replaced by pharmacies, yet
every once and a while it doesn't hurt to live in the past again.
HEALTH BEAUTY

Sugar levels Toothpaste

Stomach ache Fabric scent booster

Stop bleeding Shower gel

Open wounds Moisturize

Weight loss Hair coloring

Acne

Skin whitenning
PEGANUM
A plant that used to be found at the healer and was brought .
from the mountains after it rained. Peganum is used for fever .
and redness. However, it mostly used to control blood sugar .
levels due to it's bitterness.

Sugar levels Toothpaste

Peganum + boiled water Spoon of peganum + 2 spoons of salt mixed until dough + +
ROSE
A fregrant plant that used to be grown in the gardens within
three to four mounths during summer. A plant that was easily .
found and was mostly used to wash the clothes and as a .
shower gel.

Fabric Scent Booster Shower gel

Boiled water + bag of rose + clothes left inside for a whole Cup of rose + thick milk + spoon of honey + + + +
day
YAS
A tree grown in local farms that were isolated from the cities
and country sides. The leaves were grinded and used for .
beauty reasons.

Moisturize

Yas + half glass of warm water + leave it under the sun for + +
two weeks
TEUCRIUM
A local plant grown in the high mountains and valleys after
rainfall and it was easily found without having to plant it. .
Ga3da was known by it's bitterness and was used to clean the .
stomach and high fevers.

Stomach Ache

Tecrium + boiled water +

HENNA
Plant localy grown and was grinded to be used as a powder for
mostly beauty reasons. In the past it was also used to color the .
elederly men's beard, whereas now it is only used by the woman.
.

Stop bleeding Hair coloring

Grinded henna + place on the wound Grinded henna + cup of water mixed + leave for five minutes + +
MRYYH
A gum or resin that is extracted in south africa and Yemen and
was imported through medicine traders. After they burn the tree, .
mryyh is extracted .Although it was not easy to import in the past in .
the UAE, the prices varied due to quality provided. More so, it had
.
many benefits yet it was commonly used by women after giving
birth, bukhoor and it to heal wounds.
.

Open wounds Acne

Spoonful of mryyh + spoonful of honey mixed together. Grinded mryyh + quarter glass of rose water + used as a face + + +
mask twice a week
TURMERIC
Plant that grows within the roots and it was imported from
India through medicine traders. It was usually found at the .
healer or species shops. It was commonly used for food, yet .
they still it for health and beauty reasons.

Weight Loss Skin whitenning

Grinded turmeric + cup of water + spoon of honey mixed Boil a piece of turmeric + rose + 2 spoons of salt until it turns + + + +
and drank evernight into a scrub.
I went through couple of layouts of how the herbs/plants
would be distributed throughout the book using the same
idea. After purchasing the main seven ones, I used what i could
find at home to photograph, tissue paper and the kitchen
table. I realized after many tries of different layouts with type
and text, it was not working as much as i wanted it to.

My second approach was to take a photograph of the orginal

bags they came in and indiviually. This approach worked to my
advantage because i was able to manipulate the photographs
with the type.

Color palattes
Categories Plants

Health Green

Beauty Other color

As ibook provided a variety of widgets that would make the
interactivity easier, I chose to utilize the html, pop up and
media.

At the introduction of the ibook i provided a list of remedies

that are included by categorizing them between Health
(green) and beauty (red). Each remedy is linked to the page of
the herb for easier access.

Pop up widget was used to provide the written instructions of

each remedy identified by the dot. I chose to use that because
I tried to avoid cramming the pages of distracting information.

Throughout the book there are two audio files, one in the
middle and the end. In the first file, I asked a parent what do
you remember from using these remedies with your parents
and the end how we still use them even though they have
been replaced
REFLECTIVE
Choosing the topic was already planned from before because I
have always wanted to explore and learn about this part of our
tradition. However, figuring out what kind of information and
how much of it would I want to show was the challenging part.
After asking around and reading online on UAE blogs where
they mostly wrote the remedies, I used the chance to ask my
parents, grandmothers about what they used to use and how.
That was very beneficial because I received many and unusual
remedies using limited types of herbs, which made it more
interesting. There were many sides of the story whereas I also
asked some between the ages of 30-40 as well.
I faced several challenges throughout this project, which
helped me figure out who my audiences are and what I want
them to gain out of this book. The first challenge was the
layout of the plants throughout the book, it took me a while
and many physical trials to spread them around and physically
plan out where the title, images and more would go. The
reason why I continued with this specific layout was because
of the feel that it visually gave. It was more of a homie feel
as it supports the whole concept of the book. Even the initial
iterations of the cover page were arranged by color of the
plants for the visual consistency. I wanted to portray the dynamic of the book through main visual
elements and scale which worked to my advantage towards the
The second yet most interesting challenge was gathering the end.
information about each plant. That included the definition,
why and what did they use it for. The reason why was because It was a learning experience when it came to the content and
as I mentioned before there were a lot of sides to the story and what and how much information should be added for a user to
most of them werent straightforward. Most of the definitions learn and enjoy.
I got were very literally in terms where they came from and
how. In other words, they werent related to how did they For future plans, I am willing to either create an English version
use them in the past or any interesting facts about them that of it or add pop up pages within the Arabic version containing the
related to the UAE. As the questions, were slightly and altered translations. Hopefully, publishing it on ibook as well.
I managed to get 90% of the information from one parent.
The biggest challenge I had was the language/languages used
for the book. For each herb, there were a lot of information
that had to be added. For example, the name of the herb,
definition, name of remedies, images and information. My
initial plan was to add both languages, Arabic and English
because I wanted to attract more audiences that most
probably do not know much about this part of our past.
Therefore, I gathered and translated the information in both
languages as provided above, yet I used one language as well.