Chapter 3: How to observe

Observation phase: in this phase, the focus is on the potential customer/user. In

order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the person/user, a real target
group should be selected. Essentially, one should concentrate on customers who
have the same needs and are looking for appropriate solutions.

If the solution of the problem is based on radical innovation, it is also helpful not to
concentrate on the “average customer” but first to look progressive customers, the
so-called innovator or early adopters. They have a concrete awareness of the
problem and are actively looking for a solution. Also, it is important to search for
extreme users who use products in very specific situations, or lead users who have
already developed their own solutions for the problem.

After selecting the “right” target group, it is advisable to first put yourself in the role
of the target customer in the next step, against the background of your own
experiences and views.

Next various methods can be used to directly or indirectly obtain information from
the costumer about himself or his behavior and emotions.

Secondary data about the customer can be very diverse: search online and offline
for studies, news, articles, newspaper reports, and social networks, etc. on this
basis, you will consider what information you have or still need and how you can
best research it through written surveys, interviews and observations.

Empathetic design

Empathetic design means that the (potential) customer is observed during his
activities, so that the observer can “empathize” with the role of the customer and
the situation and thus better understand it. This is in contrast to so-called product
clinics or usability test in which artificial observation situation is created in a kind of
laboratory. If the observer takes part in the situation himself, this is also referred to
as “shadowing”.

The observation does not only concern the use of a product or prototype, but also
the situation and environment of the customer, the general conditions or his daily
routine. Also, knowledge about the customer’s motivation and behavior should be
gained.

Tips for observing

Basically, you should clarify in advance:

In detail, the following further information should be observed:

- The place and the time of the observation.

- Whom and what
- Which influence one exerts as an observer if necessary on the customers
and the environment.
- How one behaves in the situation itself.
- What expectations do you have?
- In this context, one should become aware of the numerous possible
observation/perception and assessment errors.
- It is helpful if different persons with different knowledge were to carry out the
observation.

Schemes: there are numerous schemes to structure the observations and not
disregard any essential aspects.

Nine dimensions of descriptive observation:

AEIOU
POEMS: can be used to combine observations with People, Objects,
Environments, Messages and Services.

Five Human Factors:

Think-aloud technique: during the observation, you can therefore also ask the
person to explain his or her activities aloud or to say what he or she
feels/perceives.
 - Concurrent think-aloud: This think-aloud technique can occur at the same
time when the customer is actually doing the job.
- Retrospective think-aloud: a video can be recorded and then the customer
comments on his activities when viewing the video. This allows the
customer to concentrate on his activities and also, he or she can articulate
his intentions, feelings and thoughts in a calm atmosphere.

Errors during observation/perception/judgment:

Methods for Empathetic design:

Artifact Analysis

Artifact analysis is the systematic examination of objects, thins and other objects
that the customer owns, uses or wished to have. The investigation can relate to the
value, functionality, materiality, frequency of use, etc. of the object. From these
conclusions can be drawn as to how the customer is, which habits and needs he
has, if necessary which problems he could have with the use of the objet and how
the customer can presumably be characterized culturally or socially on the basis of
the object.

Behavioral mapping and tracking

In behavioral Mapping, the movements and activities of customers are

systematically recorded and examined.

- Place-centered mapping: people are observed at specific, predefined

locations within a specific period of time.
- Individual-centered mapping: a certain person is observed how he or she
moves or what activities he or she undertakes at a certain location and over
certain period of time.

Empathy Map

It pursues the goal of putting oneself as comprehensively as possible into a person

or a group of persons.

- What does the person think and feel in the situation?

- What does the person say and do in this situation?
- What does the person hear?
- What does the person see in the particular situation?
- What frustration does the person have or get in the particular situation?
- What makes the person happy in the situation?
Cognitive Walkthrough

The cognitive behavior of a user is simulated when he uses a product, uses a

service, operates a system or generally accomplishes a task. All in all, the following
goals can be pursued:

- Investigate how complicated an idea, a concept, a system, a product or a

general task is for a person.
- Identifying barriers and opportunities for improvement.
- Find missing information for the user.
- Find difficulties for the user.

How to do it:

A limited number of experts individually work the task with which a user is
confronted when using a product or service. A step-by-step approach that is as
realistic as possible is recommended.

The following questions should be answered at each action step:

Approaches for new ideas or improvement measures would be:

Heuristic Evaluation

Experts examine products, services or general systems by judging then with a list
of heuristics that represent ideal principles for the user-friendly use of products or
services.

The heuristics are the following:

1. Simple and natural dialogue.

2. The product or the persons in the service speak the language of the user.
3. The user´s memory load is minimal.
4. Consistency
5. Feedback
6. There are clearly marked exited points, so that the user has the possibility to
stop actions at any time or in total.
7. Shortcuts
8. Good error messages
9. Error avoidance
10. Help and documentation are available, easy to find and always available for
the customer.

As a result, the found derivations from the heuristics are discussed, grouped,
described and finally evaluated by the experts. For the evaluation, there are the
following dimensions:

- Problem frequency
- Problem impact
- Persistence

The severity of the problem is ultimately a combination of these dimensions.

Mental-model diagram

The mental methods take on a real user view. Mental models describe the
assumptions a person makes about how something should function or run. These
assumptions can deviate from the actual course of action or how the provider of a
product or service thinks it should proceed. Such an analysis offers therefore
numerous starting points for the improvement and the development of innovations.

Customer journey

It can be seen as a consistent further development of the methods mentioned

above. With the customer journey, it is presented which steps a potential customer
goes through before, during and after he has used a product or service.

How to do it:
 1. Find the persona or selected and supplemented with an empathy map.
2. With the help of information from surveys, observations, sales records, or
own experiences, customer satisfaction analyses or a brainstorming session
the following phase of a customer journey can be summarized in key words.

Phases of Customer Journey:

3. In each phase, the following questions are asked:

- What does the persona want? What does she really want to achieve?
- What does he do? What does he not do? How does he try to achieve his
goals?
- What does he use for it and in what order? Who is the persona in contact
with? Where are the contact points with the company? How long do the
touches with the company las in each case? How long do the individual
phase of the customer journey last in total?

Touchpoints: they represent places/opportunities/moments where people

come into contact with the product or the brand or the company in the
broadest sense.
 4. For each phase and each step in a phase, the satisfaction of the costumer is
assessed (Customer Experience Map).
5. Furthermore, the Key moments of Truth can also be identified for each
phase/step. These are moments that are of particularly high relevance for
the customer.
- First moment of truth: if the customer perceives the product at all.
- Second moment of truth: if the customer is currently using the product or
service and during this time evaluates the product/service on the basis of its
quality requirements.
- Third moment of truth: if the customer has a positive, neutral or negative
perception after using the product/service.
- Zero moment of truth: when the customer perceives his problem for the first
time through a stimulus and seeks or compares information about possible
problem solutions.
- Ultimate moment of truth: when the customer reports on his experiences
with the product to others.

6. The customer journey combines very well with the customer benefit matrix,
a methodology to develop improvement opportunities for each phase.

Service blueprinting

Represents a service processes in a process diagram from the customer and

company perspective, in which different levels are differentiated according to
proximity to the customer. This method can help to increase customer satisfaction,
improve the quality of individual steps or the entire service process, and save cost
and time.

In the presentation of a service blueprint, five levels can be differentiated, which

are first roughly subdivided between the (sole) customer and service provider
activities and then differentiated according to different visibilities for the customer.
How to do it:
Mystery shopping

With Mystery shopping, the quality of service with its shortcomings and potential for
improvement can be assessed by systematic observation in which an observer
takes part in a real consultation or purchase action as a test customer. With
mystery shopping, the test persons must be trained so that they can behave like a
real customer and can register in detail the environment and in particular the
behavior of the salesperson or consultant.

With Mystery shopping the following characteristic can be observed:

- Quality of the environment

- Meeting deadlines, availability, waiting times, opening/consulting times,
delivery times.
- Quality of consulting
- Solution quality
- Communication quality
- Delivery qualities

Critical-Incident technique

They survey of customers concentrates on a particularly memorable experience in

connection with the consultation and use of a product. These critical events often
live on as stories through mouth-to-mouth communication and thus also gain great
importance for the company.