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The Buteo buteo, or as we commonly call it the Common Buzzard, spends most of its days soaring high above the ground observing the movements and behaviours of animals below. It starts to prepares its next dive, down from the clouds, by gathering data and information on the happenings beneath itself. The Buzzard pinpoints multiple bits of data simultaneously, like the movement of a rabbit and a waddle of a duck. By employing this scanning method, the Buzzard can increase its chances of a successful dive without having to waste its energy with unsuccessful attempts to catch prey.
We, as Humans, perform a similar task to the Buzzard when we look at the weather and prepare for our day. We wake up every morning, take a look outside and examine the sky, and quickly peruse our weather report of choice. From this, we can then make an informed choice about whether to take a raincoat with us to work or our favourite pair of sunglasses.
"It is similar to putting flat-pack furniture together without any instructions"
However, you may be unaware that the process described above, utilised daily by us and Buzzards, is an actual method of data collection constantly implemented in scientific evidence-based projects and is known as Observation. Observation is one of the first and most important steps in every project, whether you’re running a behavioural insights project or otherwise. The principles behind observation are that before you can begin theorising, designing, or applying a project intervention (in our case nudges), you must first gather and collect data and information relevant to your project. From this you can construct a solid foundation of evidence that you can design your project interventions around. And just like the Buzzard, you can use this newly constructed foundation of evidence to increase the likelihood of success and reduce the chances of wasted time and energy. As Arthur Conan Doyle pleasantly states, in his Sherlock Holmes novels, “It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data”.
Observational insights
No matter what your project entails, carefully observing and monitoring the problem beforehand will provide you with much needed insight and help you answer questions like:
“What is the design of our project?”
“How will we run our project?”
“Who is our project affecting?”
“Will our project be successful?”
For instance, in a healthy eating nudge project that we recently implemented, we spent a vast period of time inconspicuously observing eating and purchasing behaviours of customers to fully understand the environment, what the nudge may look like, and where it might be placed. By collecting behavioural data in this manner, we were able to recognise and develop our understanding of customer actions. From this, we were able to design and deliver an effective nudge on the foundation of behavioural data that we had constructed through our observation process.
What is the best way to implement observation?
There are many methods you can utilise to help gather data through the observational phase of your project. You can implement questionnaires, interviews, focus-groups, or even analyse some pre-existing databases. However, one common method utilised is known as Natural Observation. This procedure involves you physically observing and monitoring the problem in its naturally occurring environment. For instance, if your project was to build a nudge to help reduce littering, you would sit on a park bench and subtly observe people’s littering behaviours. Then you would code and analyse the whys, whats, and whens of littering. Through this you can then gain some physical behavioural evidence to benefit your nudge design.
Observation. Observation. Observation.
To briefly summarise, if you are planning a project that involves any type of intervention that elicits change, ensure that you include an observational phase in your project. By not utilising and applying observational procedures beforehand, you will find yourself struggling in the design of your projects. It is similar to putting flat-pack furniture together without any instructions – it’s tedious and difficult work which will leave you frustrated, resulting in wasted time and effort. So, ensure your project isn’t built without instructions – apply observation to your future projects.
Thanks for reading.
Remember to follow on twitter @nudgeup to keep up to date with our work and future blogs.
