Method: Observation
By: Etienne Gernez
Tags: Design, Fieldwork, UX, User Research, Course

Observation is the engine of the field study. Through personal and team work, your observations will trigger reflections, which will become insights and design material. Different observation methods will help you produce different types of observations: what you can observe and experience on your own, and what your informants will tell you about their actions or their thoughts.

In the next paragraphs, we describe the main observation techniques we use:

Silent observation and shadowing

Participatory observation and participatory design

Design evaluation of existing solutions

Thinking aloud

Artefact walkthrough

Interviews

Mapping

It is important to decide beforehand which method you will use in what situation, so that you can prepare yourself and avoid thinking about what to observe, how to observe and how to document your observations in the middle of the action.

We have compiled a list of references for further reading at the end of the chapter.

Your best observation tools: your curiosity and your senses

Whatever the observation method you are using, remember to be explorative and to look at everything as something interesting. Use all your senses to enrich your visual observation with a full physical experience of the field: the sounds, the smells, the feeling in your hands, the movements of your body when navigating this new space.

Look out for details, repeating patterns, start making connections. Make note of what happens the way you thought it would, and make note of what does not. Whenever possible, try to put yourself in the shoes of your informant. If you get offered the opportunity to try to operate some of the systems your informant is working with, make sure that you have the clearance to do so.

Keep the mantra that “there is always something to observe”. You will experience moments when you have the impression that nothing is going on. What actually happens then? What are your informants doing when it seems that they are not engaged with a specific task? How do they know that they do not need to engage right now, and what will make them resume their work task?

Documenting your observations

Document what you are observing with the help of notes, sketches, photos and videos — if you are allowed to take photos and videos, and if the photos and videos serve a specific purpose in your study. Your notes will contain the most important part of your field data, so treat them very carefully. Do not rely on your memory or your photos and videos only.

We recommend that you develop a template for your observation sheets, that suits the needs of your study, and that is convenient for you to use. You will also need to develop a coding system to distinguish your observations from your reflections, for example the ideas and questions you get when you observe something. You will use this coding system while writing your notes, and when you review them after an observation session.

Complement your notes with additional information: your name, the time of the observation, the location of the observation, the observation method, some information about your informant(s). The timestamp and location will help you cross reference your notes with the timestamps and location of your photos and videos. Make sure to keep your informant anonymous whenever possible and needed. You can for example prepare a list of codes for each of your informants, and keep the code list in a secure place.

Think about a convenient way to take notes while moving, talking, taking pictures, grabbing things. You will write a lot, so you will need a good amount of paper. Watch out were you step, and train to write while looking at something else.

Capturing photos and videos

A photo or a video is not an observation: when you will look again at it later, there is no guarantee you will remember what specific information you were trying to capture. Rather, you should consider a photo or a video as a form of evidence that documents an observation you have written in your notes. From this point you can always ask yourself: what form of evidence is most convenient, given the conditions in which I am carrying out this study? A sketch might work just as well as a photo, especially if you do not have the authorisation to take photos.

Once you have all the required permissions and once you are sure that you need photos, you need to make sure to use proper equipment. Although phone cameras are becoming pretty decent, we strongly recommend to use a digital camera with a light tripod. You will need to zoom in your photos, extract specific informations, so it is important that your photos are not blurry. When you take video, a tripod is absolutely mandatory, because it will really help you produce video of high quality.