Want to understand what your customers really think and feel? Then you’re in the right place. We’re going to introduce you to qualitative observation.
We’ll also cover the different types, benefits, and methods of qualitative research, plus we’ll show you step-by-step how to conduct your own observations in the wild.
But first, a favorite quote from one of our favorite researchers:
“Qualitative research is more important than ever. AI does not replace it and in fact it will increasingly need what it is that people are doing who are on this call today. And the most important thing we can do is make sure we stay the course and say humanity deserves the attention that UX research has to offer it’s core to anything we’re going to do that’s meaningful.”
Mary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft
Ready to streamline your qualitative research and unlock deeper insights? Request a free demo of Marvin’s powerful tools.
What is a Qualitative Observation?
Qualitative observation is a form of research in which you use your senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing—to observe the behaviors of your subjects in their natural setting.
Rather than relying on cold, hard data, qualitative observation focuses on the observer’s subjective “feelings” about the situation. It’s often used by psychologists, animal behavioral scientists, healthcare professionals, marketers, and educators to gather real-world experiences.
Here’s an example of qualitative research you might be familiar with…
Imagine you’re the principal at a local high school and want to evaluate a teacher’s performance. What would you do?
You’d probably sit in on their class and observe their tone of voice, facial expressions, and interactions with the class. Based on these observations, you would then make inferences, like “the kids love when she makes jokes” or “his students clearly understand the material by the end of the class.”
That’s qualitative observation in action.
The benefits of gaining this type of subjective insight include:
- Gaining deep insight into customer behavior
- Improving communication with customer segments by improving messaging
- Enhancing curriculum design
- Obtaining a better understanding of behaviors and social interactions
- Improving services and public policies for educators, therapists, healthcare workers, and businesses
Qualitative vs. Quantitative Observations
Important note: Understanding the difference between qualitative research vs. quantitative research is crucial.
Qualitative observation relies on using your senses to make observations and describe the qualities of a phenomenon.
Quantitative observation uses statistical data rather than relying on your senses. It’s best for situations where you need to test hypotheses, measure trends, evaluate data, compare data sets, or implement quality control.
Depending on the task, researchers may combine both quantitative and qualitative observations to reach their goal. This is called a mixed-method approach.
Types of Observation in Qualitative Research
Let’s start by understanding the different types of qualitative research. This should help you build an action plan for conducting your first observation.
Participant Observation
Participant observation is when you actively engage in the environment you’re studying rather than observing from the sidelines. This allows you to see your subjects in a natural setting and gather data you’d never otherwise get.
Think of it like going undercover. The secret here is that the others can’t know you are the researcher. As soon as they know, they will act differently around you. We cover more about this phenomenon (the Hawthorne Effect) in our Challenges section.
For example, a retail company might have a manager work on the sales floor to understand customer interactions and identify areas for improvement.
Non-participant Observation
Non-participant observation is the opposite of participant observation — you sit on the sidelines as a neutral observer, watching your subjects go about their business without interfering.
Non-participant observations are best for studying:
- Employees in the office
- Students in a classroom
- Human behavior in a social setting
- Customer behavior in a store
When you aren’t actively participating in the research, you have more time to focus on recording observations. It also maintains the integrity of the group since you aren’t influencing the behaviors of your subjects at all.
Structured Observation
Structured observation is a method of research where the observer uses a predefined framework for observing their subjects, such as checklists or rating scales.
This type of organized research is best used in tandem with quantitative research.
For example, someone observing a classroom might use an observation framework that rates the teacher’s tone of voice, relationship with students, and delivery of the materials. This data could then be used alongside quantitative research to measure their performance over time or compare it to other departments.
Unstructured Observation
Unstructured observation is a “hands-off” style of monitoring subjects where the researcher just watches and records anything they feel is relevant.
This is an open-ended, flexible style of observation that doesn’t use a framework. Normally, in unstructured observation, the researcher will take detailed notes or record video that they can analyze later.
Pro tip: Freestyle observation is best during the early stages of research. Say you want to improve customer care in a healthcare setting. You might start with unstructured observation and note how patients and their families interact with staff. You could then use these notes to define critical goals and create an evaluation framework.
What Are the Key Methods of Qualitative Observation?
To gather rich data by watching people in action, researchers use various techniques:
- Direct Observation. Direct observation is when you watch your subjects in their natural environment without getting in the way. This lets you see real behaviors in real time, so you can gather authentic data.
- Interviews. Interviews let you explore the “why” behind customer behaviors. Researchers love interviews because they can dig deeper to get context and depth that observation alone can’t. (By the way, Marvin is amazing for this!)
- Inductive Reasoning. Inductive reasoning lets you gather observations, notice patterns, and then build a theory from the ground up. You draw conclusions based on what you experience.
- Understanding Context. Understanding context emphasizes the importance of the “big picture” and how the environment or social connections between people or events affect the outcomes. In a nutshell, you can’t just look at the raw data without understanding the data’s context.
- Subjectivity. This might surprise you, but having your own subjective experiences helps you ask better questions, empathize with your subjects, and analyze the data more efficiently. Your subjective experience is your strength!
How to Conduct a Qualitative Observation
Now that you know what qualitative observation is, the different types of observations you can conduct, and the methods behind the madness, let’s get into how to actually use it to make business decisions (without wasting a ton of time and money).
Step 1: Define Your Purpose
What’s the whole point of this observation anyway? You aren’t just sitting around watching live recordings of customers on your website all day for no reason. Write down what you want to learn from this observation, and be as specific as possible.
For example, we’re going to pretend we’re an e-commerce company conducting research on how to improve conversions on our checkout pages. We should define our purpose like this:
“We want to understand why users aren’t converting on our seasonal checkout pages.” NOT, “We are going to observe user behavior on our website.”
Step 2: Define Your Setting and Choose Your Role
Where is this observation going to take place? In a classroom, on the street, on the web? Make sure you know the who, where, and how of your research before you start. This includes defining your role as the researcher, too. Will you actively participate in the research or observe from the sidelines?
Refer to the section above on different types of observations. In our example, the e-commerce company decided to conduct non-participant observation to observe visitors using their website in real time.
Step 3: Plan Your Methodology
How are you going to observe the participants in your study? Are you going to use a rating scale? Will it be totally freestyle with just a notepad? Are you going to watch 14 hours of customer interactions using HotJar? Are you going to collect the data using Marvin and then have your team of researchers share the data with each other (hint, hint!)?
In this case, our fictional e-commerce company chose tools like HotJar and Marvin to record visitor interaction, then store the data in a location that’s easily accessible to all team members. They also came up with a list of criteria for evaluating the user’s behavior on each page.
Step 4: Execute
It’s time to watch some visitor behavior videos. Fire up your software and grab some popcorn. As you watch each video, use your set criteria to evaluate each interaction and observe why people aren’t buying your eco-friendly clothes.
Be mindful of bias and context as you’re watching.
Step 5: Organize and Analyze
This is when you store the data using software (if it’s online) and begin to figure out the how and why behind things. Maybe your buttons aren’t the right colors. Maybe the price is too high. Or maybe your web copy isn’t any good. We don’t know your store, so we can’t say why. (Actually wait, this store is fictional, so nobody really knows.)
Once you’ve made your observations, it’s important to build a hypothesis based on the data and start testing.
Qualitative research is an iterative, scientific process. For instance, if people aren’t even getting to your call-to-action buttons, then you probably need to test the web copy and placement of your CTAs.
Since it’s iterative, you probably want a great tool to track all your data, observations, and insights. Mozey on over to this article I wrote about how AI makes qualitative research powerful.
Or hit the super-easy button and sign up for a free Marvin account.
Examples of Qualitative Observation
Here are two examples of how researchers use qualitative observations in real-life situations.
Qualitative Observation in Retail
Have you heard of mystery shopping?
Large retailers often hire people who secretly wander stores to observe employees “in the wild” and take note of the customer experience.
This type of qualitative observation offers incredible insight for retailers, such as how employees are performing and how the company could improve its customer experience.
Qualitative Observation in Education
Just in case you still haven’t recovered from the memories of our 2020 lockdown, let’s bring that sore spot up again.
COVID-19 drove everyone indoors, spawning a massive increase in remote learning. But did kids really learn anything sitting at home and learning via Zoom?
School districts conducted interviews with kids, parents, and educators to learn how effective it was. What did they like or dislike? Were the students engaged during lessons? Did test scores improve? How was student attendance?
What a lot of schools found was that as long as kids had a quiet space dedicated to learning, they performed just fine.
Key Challenges in Conducting Qualitative Observation
Qualitative analysis based on subjective human experiences is extremely nuanced. Sometimes, companies even ignore context and subjectivity altogether, which can lead to poor decisions that end up reducing ROI rather than improving it.
So, keep an eye out for a few challenges…
- Bias. Qualitative analysis is fraught with people seeking confirmation bias. That is, we look for information that merely confirms our previously existing opinions or hypotheses rather than conducting open-minded research. Always consider how your own biases—or those of other researchers—may influence the notes, data, insights, or action steps.
- The Hawthorne Effect. People act differently when they know they’re being watched, which reduces the effectiveness of research. This can be a real problem during user interviews — participants often skew toward more positive answers when asked directly about a product. Using multiple research methods can help you confirm their answers against tangible data.
- Inconsistency. It’s not easy to systemize and analyze thousands of unique observations in different settings. This is where research design and a standardized protocol come into play (wherever applicable). Researchers often create their own framework for studying groups or analyzing data. Sometimes, they review data with peers using a coding system to get a more concrete picture of what’s really happening.
- Inaccurate Data. Data accuracy is a major challenge in qualitative analysis because it is subjective, interpretive, and context-dependent. Use strategies like triangulation — combining multiple data sources or methods to cross-check findings.
The good news? There are plenty of tools designed to improve qualitative observation and analysis. Marvin’s sophisticated AI research assistant automates most of the tasks listed above, which decreases manual errors and speeds up your entire workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
In case you still have questions, here are a few more answers.
What Skills Are Essential for Effective Qualitative Observation?
Key skills include attention to detail, remaining objective, and strong note-taking abilities. You also need to be patient, a good listener, and open-minded.
It’s also important to be able to interpret what you observe without jumping to conclusions.
What Are Common Tools Used in Qualitative Observation?
Common tools include notebooks or digital devices for taking detailed notes, audio or video recorders for capturing interactions, and sometimes observation checklists to ensure consistency.
Software like NVivo, Marvin, or HotJar can also be used to organize and analyze the data you collect.
Can Qualitative Observation be Conducted Remotely?
Yes, qualitative observation can be conducted remotely, especially with the help of video conferencing tools, session recordings, or virtual environments.
It’s not the same as in-person observation, but you can still gather valuable insights by watching how people interact in digital spaces.
How to Know if Quantitative or Qualitative Observation is More Suitable for a Study?
Quantitative observation is better suited for measuring and comparing specific variables, like numbers or percentages. But if you need to understand behaviors, experiences, or the “why” behind actions, qualitative observation is better.
Think about whether you need numbers or a deeper understanding to decide which approach fits your study.
Conclusion
Now that you know what qualitative observation is, how it works, how to conduct it, and the challenges you’ll face, it’s time to devise a plan and start gathering data.
What do you want to study? How are you going to study it? And which tools are you going to use?Follow the blueprint we’ve given you here and start building your toolkit for conducting research. If you want an AI-driven tool for collecting, storing, analyzing, and sharing data for qualitative research, request a demo of Marvin today.
