Field observation involves gathering data at the user's environment.

It is the science of contexualization.

Field observations are referred to by many names.

Field observation, field study, contextual inquiry, fly on the wall,

shadowing, ethnography and guided tour.

The different names indicate how much interaction happens between

the participant and the moderator.

A fly on the wall hints no interaction,

while a guided tour might indicate there's more of a conversation going on.

The truth is that it doesn't really matter what you call it.

As long as you're observing a person, a user, or potential user in their

natural environment, you are in the field observation business.

There could be multiple goals for field observations.

Identifying new features or products.

Validating or invalidating team assumptions about users.

Identifying problems people might have.

Understanding user goals.

Understanding people's workflow.

Verifying or developing user profiles.

Collecting artifacts.

Artifacts are different things people use to complete their tasks.

For example, an artifact of grocery shopping is a written list of

groceries one prepares before they go shopping.

There are four important pillars for field observations.

One, observing.

Watching people as they go about their daily lives at home, work, in between, or

where ever, is relevant to what the product team is interested in.

Two, listening.

Learning the language and jargon people use in their own environments,

as well as witnessing conversations they have with others.

Three, noticing.

Paying attention to a variety of behaviors and

occurrences that might have significant implications on user needs.

And four, gathering.

Collecting different artifacts that might again indicate certain user needs or

missing features or products.