Before this project, I never had any experience just sitting down and observing someone. I went into this process expecting my hour of observation to be totally uncomfortable, but after doing it, I definitely have a new appreciation for the art of observation. Overall, I think both the successes and obstacles of my observation experience can be described with a few key “lessons learned”:
- The most useful insights come from the nuanced, often overlooked, behaviors. Let’s be honest – observations can be awkward for both parties. If you’re the person being observed, you might feel pressure to say or do certain things. One way I learned to combat this potential bias was to dig deeper than the surface level behaviors. During my observation, many of the important notes about how the space was used, how roommates interacted with one another, etc. came from body language and indirect communication, rather than obvious cues.
- Even if the scope of observations seem dauntingly broad and uncorrelated, common insights will arise. When I was reviewing my notes, I was genuinely confused – how were my teammates and I going to learn anything from details that seemed all over the place? However, after writing key notes on Post-it notes and refining our research questions, I began to see some themes pop up. This challenge definitely showed me that it’s important to start broad and work your way down to a narrow focus, even if it seems chaotic at first.
- Don’t eliminate observations just because they’re not consistent with your insights. During our synthesis (and even when taking notes during my actual observation period), I was tempted to simply overlook behaviors that didn’t fit in with the insights my teammates had gathered so far. However, if I had actually done this, our group could have missed out on a “outlier” insight that might be the basis of our solution or lead us down an unexpected path. Innovation definitely lives in the realm of uncertainty!
I’m happy with how my observation session went, as well as how my team’s synthesis went afterwards. Observing others is definitely a learning process that requires stepping out of your comfort zone, but the end result is invaluable!