Active Participation

The aim of this tool is to try to understand the thoughts and feelings of your target audience by putting yourself in their shoes, that is, by experiencing their context as they do. This helps the researcher to gain a better sensibility and deeper understanding of the contextual, emotional, and social factors shaping the target group.

Make Preparation

Think about the questions you will seek answers to and plan what you can experience and how you can experience it. For some topics, active participation is a very hard work. You may need to warm up to the context and warm up those in the context to get a real user experience. For example, if your subject of study is a service that a group of people use regularly, you may inevitably be treated differently when you want to experience that service as an outsider. In other words, you may be immediately recognized as a foreigner in the context you enter and people may treat you differently. Take the time to make preparations that will bring your experience as close as possible to the actual experience of the target audience.

Keeping records during the experience can be challenging. So don't forget to record during the breaks or at the end of the day.