Five Minutes: Separate an Observation from an Assumption

Learning objective

Write an observation that another person can distinguish from your interpretation.

Your five-minute route

Allow about one minute for the idea, one minute for the worked example, two minutes for your own answer and one minute for feedback. Work at your own pace. These timings are estimates. Use a notebook or a document for your response; no answer is submitted and no account progress is recorded.

One useful idea

An observation records what happened or what someone said. An interpretation proposes what it means. Keep the two separate so that the interpretation can be checked. GOV.UK research guidance recommends recording what was seen or heard before deciding its meaning.

Worked example

During a fictional form test, a participant clicks Submit three times and says, “I cannot tell whether it has sent.” Record those actions and the quote. “The participant is careless” is an interpretation, not the recorded behaviour. “The page did not show a confirmation during the session” is an observation only if the observer actually checked it.

Check your learning

In a fictional session, a participant opens Help twice before choosing a payment option. A colleague writes, “The participant does not understand money.” Rewrite the note as an observation. Add one question that would help investigate the behaviour. Write your answer before reading the explanation below.

Answer and explanation

A suitable observation is: “The participant opened Help twice before choosing a payment option.” A useful follow-up is: “What were you looking for in Help?” The note about understanding money goes beyond the evidence. There may be several explanations. A participant’s reply is evidence of what they reported; it does not automatically establish the cause.

Use it in your work

For your next meeting or research note, use two short headings: Observed and Possible explanation. Put claims of cause in the second group until you have evidence. Do not invent a quote or imply that an event was observed when someone merely reported it.

Completion check

You have completed this unit when you can explain the idea in your own words, compare your answer with the explanation and apply the same approach to one new example. If your answer missed a key point, revise it and try again. This is a practice lesson, not an examination or a validated assessment.

Sources and provenance

Further reading: GOV.UK Service Manual: Analyse a research session. The scenarios and answer explanations are original RDE teaching examples. Names, organisations and records used in examples are fictional. Reviewed 8 October 2026. Author: Jefferson Otonbara Imgbi.

Cover image: AI-generated illustrative scene created specifically for this resource.