OUTCOMES
A strong understanding of users and their daily interactions with their environment
Discern patterns in behaviours that you can draw learnings from
USING THE TOOL
Engaging with users in-context is the best way to understand the lives of the people you’re designing for and validate information collected during interviews. The complexity of people's lives can't be conveyed in an interview, but this can give you a better window into their experience. You may observe users in different contexts and time frames, depending on its relevance to your challenge. Spend a day shadowing your participants, record their rituals and observe their interaction with different products and services.
Plan your research: Start by defining your research question or a list of questions to which you want answers. Reflect on why you’re conducting the research and how you’re going to use the information you collect. Based on this, set a sample size and draw up a plan to approach your participants.
Connect with participants: Based on the questions you defined earlier, identify and connect with participants who fulfil the required criteria. At this stage, it is important to agree on ethical constraints such as taking voice recordings, photos or videos of your participants. Let your participants know how you plan to use this recorded material.
Conduct observations: Use the observation canvas as a starting point to note down everything you see. You can also use additional modes of recording such as voice recordings, photographs and videos to support your notes. Sometimes it is helpful to mix participant observation with other methods, such as interviews. You may ask participants to explain specific activities, behaviours or rituals.
Draw inferences: Review all recorded and written material and summarise all the observations into learnings that you may use later in forming personas or drawing journey maps.
good sequence
Interview > Observation Canvas > Persona
other names
Shadowing, Day in the life, Work-along
Tips
Be wary of the ‘observer effect’ by striving to influence the research participants as little as possible. It is crucial to establish trust so participants do not feel conscious of your presence
Depending on where you’re working, be sure to check the ethical and legal aspects of carrying out observational research
It can be tempting to immediately interpret what you have seen, but better to make sure you record exactly what you see and hear before drawing conclusions
It is useful to establish a time (or even a full interview) after the observation where you can follow up on things you have witnessed to find clarity. This prevents the urge to ask too many questions during the observation session
This process is not just useful when considering the end user, it can also be hugely valuable in considering other stakeholders involved in the project
