Unit 4 · Lesson 15 of 20
Turn observations into findings
Report what happened, why it matters, and what explanation needs checking.
01 / Learn
Learn the method
Fictional case
The team runs six fictional prototype sessions and compares patient actions with facilitator and staff notes.
Terms for this lesson
- Finding
- A concise account of an observed issue and its consequence.
- Severity
- The importance of an issue based on consequence, reach, and recovery effort.
- Confidence
- How strongly the available evidence supports an interpretation.
A finding begins with an observation from a stated task and setting. It then explains the consequence for the person and offers a possible cause as an interpretation. Keeping these parts distinct lets a team act on the evidence while leaving room for another explanation.
Read the session notes across participants before choosing a single example. Look for a repeated behavior, a serious one-off barrier, and cases that challenge the pattern. A six-person study gives the team direct evidence of those six sessions and useful signals for revision. The team can use broader service data to estimate how often a behavior occurs in routine operation.
Severity comes from the consequence, recovery effort, and conditions in which the issue appears. A patient who treats a delayed request as confirmed may wait in the wrong state. Another patient may reach reception and resolve it quickly. Both observations help the team choose the urgency and shape of the change.
Write each finding as a short chain: task and condition, observed action, consequence, interpretation, and next check. Link it to a design decision. A clear finding helps colleagues discuss the service behavior instead of debating a single quote.
Use the method
- State the task, condition, and observed action.
- Explain the consequence and mark the proposed cause as an interpretation.
- Choose a next check that could strengthen or change the explanation.
The count from a small qualitative study describes its sessions; service-wide frequency calls for broader measurement.
- GOV.UK Service Manual: Analyse a research session ↗Move from notes to observations, findings, and actions in clear steps.
- Nielsen Norman Group: Making Usability Findings Actionable ↗Report an observed issue with context and a direction the team can use.
- Nielsen Norman Group: Triangulation: Get Better Research Results by Using Multiple UX Methods ↗Use different evidence types to test an explanation's limits.
02 / See the reasoning
Worked example
In the fictional round, two of six patients read the delayed screen and moved to the waiting area as though check-in were complete. One asked reception for help, and three waited at the kiosk. The team records the two observed interpretations and the risk of an unrecorded arrival. It then checks whether the wording, visual hierarchy, or lobby signs led to that understanding.
Try a decision →03 / Decide
Guided decision
Which finding best reflects the supplied six-session packet?
Feedback on your choice
What could change the answer: A video showing that the patients followed a lobby sign would give the setting a larger role in the next revision.
Use this feedback to examine your choice and written reasoning.
Build your case file →04 / Build the case
Your case file
Fictional case update
In the same study, one patient uses reception after reading the received message because the entrance sign asks arriving patients to tell staff.
Evidence and constraints
- Fictional study: six patients complete a scripted prototype check-in.
- Fictional observation: during a delayed branch, two patients move to waiting, one asks reception, and three stay at the kiosk.
- Fictional observation: one patient reads a received message and still visits reception after seeing the entrance sign.
- Fictional system condition: a delayed branch has yet to receive a service receipt.
Write a second finding card for this event. Give the observation, consequence, possible explanations, and a check that could separate them.
Create: Two finding cards with observation, consequence, interpretation, and next check.
The findings describe the supplied sessions accurately and keep possible causes open for investigation.
- Each card names task and condition.
- Counts refer to the fictional study sample.
- The next check could shift the team's interpretation.
A useful finding points toward a revision and a question for the next test.
Lesson complete
You added to your case file.
You studied the method, practiced a decision, and added an artifact to your case file. Carry that reasoning into the next lesson.
05 / Keep working