Field study

Field research — what is it?

Field research, also called field studies, is a type of research that aims at achieving a deeper understanding of human behavior. In the context of user research, its goal is to discover the context behind the users' decision-making and understand how they use a product.

The main objectives of field research are to observe and understand user behavior while they're in their natural environment. It's a type of qualitative research method that allows you to interpret the social interactions (or product interactions) of groups of people.

The field research method is not as popular as usability testing or diary studies because it's generally more difficult to organize and more cost-intensive. However, it can provide data and context that other research methods might miss. That's why field research is an excellent supplement to other methods.

The benefits of conducting field research include the following:

• The data collected during a field study allows you to better understand how the context and natural environment of a user influence their behavior.
• Field research enables you to collect data that directly applies to your audience. For example, thanks to it, you can discover how users do specific tasks and how to support them.
• Additionally, this type of research helps you find potential pain points and ways of alleviating them.

You can use field research in fields such as:

• User research
• Market research
• Anthropological research

Why should you conduct field research?

As we've mentioned, even though field research is more complex to plan and conduct, it can still benefit an organization.

Filling in gaps in data

Field research can be a great tool for filling in the gaps in data that occurred during other quantitative or qualitative research. It can reveal additional data and provide more in-depth contextual data. Beyond that, you can use it as a starting point for examining a particular subject before applying additional methods, especially when there is little to no data about it.

Improving the quality of collected data

Field research enables you to look deeper into user behavior and utilizes different types of tools (surveys, interviews, shadowing), increasing the quality of collected data. By combining field research with other methods, you obtain enough data for data analysis methods such as statistical inference, leading to more reliable results.

Collecting additional data

Field research allows researchers to closely examine user behavior. It's an opportunity to observe people in their natural environment and gather data that wouldn't surface during artificially created conditions. In this regard, field research gives researchers a unique chance to study participants and their natural responses.

Types of field studies

There are a few types of field studies that differ in the level of researcher involvement or in how immersive they can be. For example, Nielsen Norman Group distinguishes field studies that can be more attitudinal or observational.

Direct observation

As the name suggests, direct observation focuses on observation without the involvement of a researcher. The researcher's presence is hidden from the research participants, which fosters the occurrence of natural behaviors. They don't intervene with the course of the study in any shape or form and take appropriate field notes (like field notes proper). This type of field research allows you to have a better look at users' mental models and actions. Direct observation should be carried out in public settings where observation won't raise ethical dilemmas.

There are also two types of direct observation: structured and unstructured. Structured observation involves having a precise guide or some kind of protocol that the researcher uses to conduct the research. Unstructured observation, on the other hand, consists of the researcher not having a prepared guide and simply observing the participants and taking notes.

Participant observation

Participant observation is the opposite of direct observation. This research method involves a researcher being part of the group under study, which means that the researcher is deeply involved and has influence throughout the study. Their goal is to participate in the same tasks as a group and obtain first-hand observations. Although the researcher has a degree of influence during the study, they should keep it to a minimum so they don't disrupt the natural behavior of participants.

Ethnography

Ethnography is similar to participant observation because its premise is the same. The researcher integrates into a group to study them; however, ethnography focuses on ethnic communities. The researcher's goal is to live among them, take part in their rites and events, and learn about them to study their behavior and customs.

Customer-site visits

Customer-site visits consist of visiting the research site, for example, a company or production facility. There, you can observe workers and interview them during a tour. Conducting research with this approach helps you notice the usability issues occurring during product use.

Contextual inquiry

Contextual inquiry focuses on interviewing small groups of research participants to better understand work practices and preferences. The researcher can closely observe how users are working in their natural environment and ask them questions.

Qualitative interviews

The goal of qualitative interviews (in-depth interviews, user interviews) is to gain in-depth insight about the subject being studied. They can take the form of formal, conversational, semi-structured, or open-ended interviews. This method provides a lot of data that can be sorted and analyzed later.

At which stage of product design should you conduct a field study?

You can conduct field studies at any product design stage; however, they're most effective when they occur at the initial phase. During research, you might encounter findings that will fundamentally change the product assumptions made. Therefore, conducting them at the discovery stage of research is recommended.

Field research can also be used to validate the assumptions or as an evaluative research method to test how the product is received. It will help you identify whether the product works as intended or uncover usability problems.

When to use other research methods?

Field research is more expensive than other usability research methods; therefore, you may decide to use them instead. You can also have other reasons to opt for different methods, like time constraints.

Usability research

Today, you can conduct usability research remotely with a moderator (facilitator). Thanks to this approach, researchers and study participants don't need to spend money on expensive travel or allocate extra time to be able to participate. Additionally, from the participants' perspective, they can stay in their own comfortable space.

When should you choose remote usability research:

• You want to recruit participants from around the world.
• It's important to conduct research quickly.
• You want to conduct more than one session with a few participants at a time.
• Stakeholders would like to observe the study, but their presence might negatively impact the results of field research.

Remote research has the advantage of being more convenient to conduct, but it's also limited in terms of how much researchers can see. Participants may show some reactions that will be hidden from the camera.

Lab research

Lab research focuses on conducting the study in a specially prepared location. This takes away from the natural environment aspect of field studies, but there are a few reasons that might sway you to use this solution.

You may use it when:

• You want to include stakeholders that want to be present during the study and in the study location.
• You are working on confidential projects, and remote study won't be secure enough.
• Your study requires the use of specialized equipment that participants won't be able to provide themselves, e.g., headsets for simulating scenarios.

How to plan a field research study?

There are a few steps that you can take to properly plan the course of a study.

1. Recruit research participants

Take some time to determine what characteristics your research participants need to have. What age group are you going to study? Does their education level matter? Many tools, such as dedicated software with a ready-made database of willing volunteers, can help you recruit participants (e.g., userlytics, user interviews). There are also platforms that will aid you with scheduling.

2. Choose a suitable research site

Field research needs a suitable research site where you can observe product users. That's why you need to decide where you want to conduct it. Will it be a company that uses your product for daily work? Will it be an open public space like a mall or a park? Consider where your users use the product and decide the best research location.

3. Determine how long your study will run

Another important aspect of planning is considering the length of your study. Do you need a couple of days or weeks to obtain reliable results? How much time can you allocate for it? It's also crucial to consider at what time of the day users usually use the product and whether your study should be scheduled for that time.

4. Select a research method

Finally, you can start thinking about the research method for the study. You should not only consider which method will be the most effective from a business perspective but also what users will prefer. Will your users be bothered by being interrupted with questions during tasks? Or maybe you need to limit researchers' involvement to just being observants and asking questions later, if at all.

Who should be present during a field study?

The choice of who will be present during the field study can inform decisions regarding the research site or the method of research. It's rare for only one researcher to be present during such a study.

Researchers

Of course, researchers need to be present during the study; they're the heads of the operation. As mentioned, only one researcher is rarely responsible for conducting field research. They usually need, at minimum, a second set of hands that will take notes during the study while they're busy talking with participants.

Observers

There may be situations where stakeholders will want to be part of the research. They may want to be present for many reasons. When this occurs, you should consider their participation during the planning stage. Whether they'll be present or not will influence the choice of the research site, among other things. Moreover, you should consider how their presence will affect participants. Their presence may intimidate them, and you won't be able to obtain reliable and honest reactions.

Another thing to remember about including additional observers is to ensure you present them with a clear "code of conduct." You need to clearly communicate what they can and can't do during the study. It's important that they won't disrupt the course of the study.

Common problems with conducting field research

Conducting field research is a complicated and challenging task. That's why you should be aware of some common pitfalls and do your best to avoid them.

Too short or too long research time

There are no strict rules on how long a field study should run. Everything depends on what you want to observe and in what conditions. Field research that occurs in the participant's workplace should happen during working hours so you can accurately observe their actions during the day.

In the case of remote research, scheduling more than one hour may result in the participant losing focus.

A general recommendation is to schedule more sessions if you need more time with the user. You should also thoroughly discuss the participant's daily schedule.

Too much focus on participant's complaints

During research, participants may feel tempted to list all the things they dislike in the software they're using. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. However, it takes the focus off the study itself because instead of showing the researcher their workflow, they describe it and possibly omit additional information. It's good to encourage participants to make a list of their complaints that will be handed over to the researcher and then fully focus on the study.

Turning the study into a focus group

Field research is most effective when a researcher can focus on the individual participant. Observing a group of people won't reveal their natural and day-to-day activities. To be more precise, it's about not involving other people as research participants at the same time. If you want to conduct successful field research, you need to focus your attention on following one participant. Generally, you will want only their perspective on how they use the tool; you won't need a group of people explaining it to you. You can schedule separate sessions to gather more perspectives.

Relationship between researcher and study participant

You should want the research participant to feel as comfortable in your presence as possible so they can naturally behave around you. However, this task becomes more complicated when the research site is their private space, like their home. The participant may be too preoccupied with being a good host and won't focus on the study. Their natural behavior will stop being natural and influence the results. It's the researcher's responsibility to guide the participant so that they concentrate on the study.

Focus on describing instead of showing

We mentioned above that field research is not about describing a user's workflow. That's why you should avoid the participant trying to explain everything they do or plan to do without actually doing it. You should ensure that the participant starts doing their tasks as they would typically. You can directly ask them to show you step by step what they do with the software or product.

Summary

Conducting a field study can help your organization obtain valuable and unique insight regarding users' natural behavior. It lets you spend one-on-one time with a research participant and see how they use your product in their daily lives. It enables you to observe what reactions and emotions they experience during use and their pain points. Some stakeholders may be skeptical about using field research because it's complicated to organize and costly. However, some methods can alleviate that cost, for example, conducting research remotely.

There are obstacles that make this type of research difficult to conduct, such as allocating enough time for a study session, gaining the trust of the research participant, or properly guiding the participant. These problems can be eliminated, or their influence can be minimized if you take a moment to properly plan the study and account for all these issues.