When a brand wants to capture insight into how customers honestly feel about its company or products, the market research team often turns to observation research to glean accurate insights.
Observation research in business is a qualitative market research method where researchers watch participants’ interactions and behaviors, as opposed to sending customers a survey.
There are three main types of observation research methods, including controlled observation, participant observation research, and naturalistic observation research.
This article will dive into the definition of naturalistic observation research, examples of how to focus this type of research study, and the pros and cons of conducting a naturalistic observation research study.
What is naturalistic observation research?
Naturalistic observation research is what it sounds like, a research method used in various fields where researchers observe participants in a natural environment.
In the business setting, naturalistic research includes things like observing employees at work, watching customers interact with products in a physical store, seeing how customers interact with a brand, group, or user-interface online, and more.
The key to the naturalistic observation research method is that the setting of the study always takes place in a natural environment, whether it’s a physical or virtual environment. This is different from other types of observation methods in that the researcher isn’t inviting participants into a lab to test a hypothesis and is not controlling different variables. The researcher is simply watching what takes place in a natural environment.
In a naturalistic observation research setting, the researcher will often immerse themselves in the environment, set up a coding system to count and analyze particular behaviors, take avid notes, interview participants after the fact, and may also record the observation for future reference.
Examples of how to focus a naturalistic observation research study
Naturalistic observation research can be extremely difficult if the researcher doesn’t go into the study prepared. The reason? Human behavior is unpredictable and if researchers try and observe everything, it’s possible they will end up overwhelmed and end up missing the most telling behaviors.
Ways business market researchers can focus a naturalistic observation research study is to approach the study with a research question in mind, pre-define the scope of the study, and to determine a specific sampling method. Here are some specific examples:
1. Ask a focused question
Researchers should create a focused question about the behaviors they want to evaluate before they start the study. This will help keep the researcher centered on watching the right behaviors. If the researcher records the session, they can look for additional insights and answers to other questions later.
2. Participate in frequency analysis
Frequency analysis is excellent for naturalistic observation research. In this type of analysis, a researcher will pre-code specific behaviors and count how many times that behavior occurs.
3. Focus on time sampling
Time sampling is when a researcher observers participants at different intervals of time to see if the time of day makes a difference in behavior.
4. Situation sampling
This type of sampling is when the researcher observes the customer in different situations. For a business, this could mean watching a participant interact with different user interfaces.
5. Event sampling
Event sampling is another smart way to focus a study as it involves the researcher recording one behavior and ignoring others. This could mean observing how participants behave when they are adding an item to a digital cart, as opposed to how they interact with the rest of a website.
Advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observation research
Conducting a naturalistic observation study can provide honest and valuable data, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Here is a closer look at the pros and cons of this kind of research.
Advantages:
- Natural settings ensure the validity of the study
- Researchers collect authentic and honest data
- Researchers may see things they hadn’t considered
- Natural observation leads to new ideas and more research questions
Disadvantages:
- Researchers can’t control the setting
- Researchers can’t control or manipulate variables
- It’s difficult to replicate the study
- Participants may react differently if they know they are being observed
Check out digital market research tools on the FCX Marketplace
Observation research, particularly naturalistic observation research, is an excellent way to learn more about customers and how they interact with your brand.
For more information about tools that will help you conduct virtual observation research, check out the tools in FCX Marketplace.
