RESEARCH METHOD

76 Shadowing

Shadowing provides key insight into a participant’s activities and decision patterns as the researcher follows him or her closely throughout his or her daily routines.

Shadowing is an observational method that involves tracking someone in his or her role to experience the situations of his or her daily life or work in parallel with him or her, collecting insights through the detailed nuance of firsthand, real-time exposure. Where possible, shadowing observations should be well documented, with photographs, detailed notes and sketches, or audio.

As it is primarily intended to help the designer-researcher gain a true sense of the user’s actions, decision patterns, and routines, shadowing is an exploratory research method, contributing to a baseline familiarity of the user group and possibly suggesting early design implications. Ideally, several team members will complete shadowing exercises across representative users, to begin crafting a general picture of patterns that describe the population being studied.

Variations on shadowing include ride-alongs—joining professionals such as police officers or Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel on their shift work. Obviously in shadowing certain professions or roles, special clearances may be necessary, and the risks and dangers associated with the research need to be carefully weighed against the value of the outcomes. Even in simple shadowing of typical work roles or people in their daily lives, cooperation needs to be obtained, and a respectful distance maintained to avoid interruption to natural routines, or participant behavior change as a result of being observed. However, as long as these stipulations are kept in mind, shadowing may involve interactions with the person being shadowed, asking pertinent questions or engaging in conversation.

Shadowing is not intended to be a covert research method used to follow people without their knowledge or consent. However, subtle instances of covert shadowing observations might be completed of people in public spaces, for example, following students during class changes to determine common pathways on a college campus, or tracing shoppers in a mall to observe activity patterns.