WILD SAFARICONDUCT FIRST-HAND USER OBSERVATIONS IN THEIR OWN HABITAT TO UNCOVER USER NEEDS

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WHEN NEEDED RATIONALE

WILD SAFARI

Gives surprise insights from first-hand

observation, complementary to desk

research

Sees what users actually do or not do

to develop a deep understanding of

users’ habits, quirks, rituals and goals

Is not filtered or interpreted by what

others say about users or what users

self-report (such as market research,

focus groups)

Gives inspiration through memorable

images

I need to learn

about the actual

user experience

still unknown to

me

I need to break

away from many

2nd party

points-of-view

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ESSENCE POINTERS

WILD SAFARI

Conduct first-

hand user

observations in

their own habitat

to uncover user

needs

Be where your users live, work and playE.g. on an education topic, visit a school and also check out the student’s favorite hang-out

Indulge your curiosity, observe with a child’s eye. Do not judge. Do not interpret what you observe

Get a sense for what is the norm and the trend vs. the outlier and the weak signal. Zoom in on the latter

Develop empathy for your user (you can only truly appreciate and understand the user if you see through his eyes, feel with her heart). This is different from sympathy

Bring back photos to bring your observations to life

Reflect on your observations, discover and capture the most surprising insights and user

Sources of Inspiration: IDEO method cards; Stanford d-school

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MASTERING

WILD SAFARI

Conduct first-

hand users

observation in

their own habitat

to gain empathy

and become

aware of user

needs

Opposites: also observe the exact opposite of what you are

studying: e.g. when solving the problem of excess vacant office

space, look also at a highly successful office building with full

occupancy in a thriving business district and observe what the

factors of success seem to be

Eyes of a child: especially if you are familiar with a topic, form a

pair and have the other person tell you out loud anything they

observe – different people will notice different things. A observes

for B, B writes down A’s observations as told and vice versa.

Extreme users: ask observers to focus on ‘extreme users’ –

people who are really experienced or completely novice in doing

this activity and observe and note how they behave differently

from regular users. E.g. at a the airport, observe both frequent

flyers and first time travelers– how they move through space,

interact with flight attendants, how they check-in. What routines

did they develop? What shortcuts do they take? What do they

struggle with?

Workarounds: observe and look for short cuts and workarounds

that users have adopted to get something done that is otherwise

difficult or inconvenient. This contains valuable clues for

innovation – sometimes users have created a new way of doing

things that points towards a clear need or a crude version of a

possible innovative idea. E.g. a daughter checked with her (60+)

mother whether she was bothered by the advertisement on the

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