I gave this talk for staff and students at STMIK Indonesia on 2 Jan 2021. I shared me experience as a qualitative researcher who often uses observation as my data collection methods. Tools that I often use for observation are diaries and social media. I use diaries to help me and my students understand user behaviour and activities with technology. We recently use social media as my observational tool to help us understand user social behaviour on social media. We then analysed these observational data using thematic analysis.

1. Thematic
Analysis:
Observational
Data
Fariza Hanis Abdul Razak
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
Malaysia

2. Contents
• What is observation?
• Why do observation?
• How to do observation
• Thematic analysis
• Sharing experiences

3. What is observation?
• MARSHALL and ROSSMAN (1989) define observation as "the systematic description of
events, behaviors, and artifacts in the social setting chosen for study".
• Observations enable the researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses,
providing a "written photograph" of the situation under study (ERLANDSON, HARRIS,
SKIPPER, & ALLEN, 1993).

4. Why do observation?
• Observation methods are useful to researchers in a variety of ways.
• They provide researchers with ways to check for nonverbal expression of feelings, determine who
interacts with whom, grasp how participants communicate with each other, and check for how much time
is spent on various activities (SCHMUCK, 1997).
• They allow researchers to check definitions of terms that participants use in interviews, observe events
that informants may be unable or unwilling to share when doing so would be impolitic, impolite, or
insensitive, and observe situations informants have described in interviews, thereby making them aware
of distortions or inaccuracies in description provided by those informants (MARSHALL & ROSSMAN,
1995).

5. Why do observation?
• A way to increase the validity of the study, as observations may help the researcher have
a better understanding of the context and phenomenon under study.
• Validity is stronger with the use of additional strategies used with observation, such as
interviewing, document analysis, or surveys, questionnaires, or other more quantitative
methods.
• A beginning step in ethnographic studies.

6. How to do
observation
• Methods of observation
• Controlled observation
• Structured
• For example: laboratory
• Naturalistic observation
• Semi-to-unstructured
• For example: user environment
• Participant observation

7. Types of observation
Covert observation – participants
are unaware of being observed
Overt observation – participants
are aware of being observed

8. How you
position
yourself as an
observer
Complete participant – researcher as a member
of the group under study, involved in activities
but members are unaware of being observed
Participant as observer – same as (1) but
members aware of being observed
Observer as participant – researcher as
outsider but involved in activities and members
aware of being observed
Complete observer – outsider, not involved in
activities and members unaware of being
observed

9. SIX STEPS
IN DOING
THEMATIC
ANALYSIS
Step 1: Familiarization
The first step is to get to know our
data. It’s important to get a thorough
overview of all the data we collected
before we start analyzing individual
items.
This might involve transcribing audio,
reading through the text and taking
initial notes, and generally looking
through the data to get familiar with it.

10. Step 2: Coding
Next up, we need to code the data.
Coding means highlighting sections of
our text – usually phrases or
sentences – and coming up with
shorthand labels or “codes” to
describe their content.

11. Interview extract Codes
Personally, I’m not sure. I think the climate is
changing, sure, but I don’t know why or how.
People say you should trust the experts, but who’s
to say they don’t have their own reasons for
pushing this narrative? I’m not saying they’re
wrong, I’m just saying there’s reasons not to 100%
trust them. The facts keep changing – it used to
be called global warming.
Uncertainty
Acknowledgement of climate change
Distrust of experts
Changing terminology
In this extract, we highlighted various phrases in different colors corresponding to different codes. Each
code describes the idea or feeling expressed in that part of the text.

12. Diary transcription
Codes
Codes Revisit codes
[P1,First day,4am]
I went on Instagram
to see if there any
upcoming squishy
booth. Looking at
random posts on IG.
awake at
midnight
wake at night
and use SNS
Instagram
survey
squishy
booth
[P2,Second day, 10am]
I go to bed and I was
awakened by phone
message from my
friend. I have
chatting with Zatie
about the change of
tuition’s timetable.
Then, I go back to
sleep.
awakened by
phone
message
chatting
with friend
change of
tuition’s
timetable
What Apps
[P3,Fifth day, 9am]
Wake up and open
mobile phone to check
news feed.
started the
day with SNS
Noor Hidayah Azmi (2017)

13. Step 3: Generating themes
Next, we look over the codes we’ve
created, identify patterns among
them, and start coming up with
themes. Themes are generally broader
than codes. Most of the time, you’ll
combine several codes into a single
theme.

14. Codes Theme
•Uncertainty
•Leave it to the experts
•Alternative explanations
Uncertainty
•Changing terminology
•Distrust of scientists
•Resentment toward experts
•Fear of government control
Distrust of experts
•Incorrect facts
•Misunderstanding of science
•Biased media sources
Misinformation

15. LIST OF PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY
ELDERLY KOMUTER USERS
USING AFFINITY DIAGRAM
NUR NUHA MOHD YUSUFF (2018)

16. Step 4: Reviewing themes
Now we have to make sure that our
themes are useful and accurate
representations of the data. Here, we
return to the data set and compare our
themes against it. Are we missing
anything? Are these themes really
present in the data? What can we change
to make our themes work better?
If we encounter problems with our
themes, we might split them up, combine
them, discard them or create new ones:
whatever makes them more useful and
accurate.

17. Previous Theme New Theme
Amenities Poor Amenities
Information Poor Information
Ticketing Non-Elderly Ticketing
Safety Danger
Time Table Delayed Train
Connectivity Connectivity
Ethic Services
Nur Nuha Mohd Yusuff (2018)

18. Step 5: Defining and naming themes
Now that you have a final list of
themes, it’s time to name and define
each of them.
Defining themes involves formulating
exactly what we mean by each theme
and figuring out how it helps us
understand the data.
Naming themes involves coming up
with a succinct and easily
understandable name for each theme.

19. Codes, Categories and Themes from Thematic Analysis
Codes Categories Themes
survey toy collector booth
search toy photo
search idea through bedroom photo
search idea of photo effects
find gameplay strategies
watch music video
following people browsing information
browse friend’s photo
browse friend’s profile
browse celebrity’s photo
browse celebrity’s profile
read news feed
lurking on people
view selected post
skip unrelated post
viewing favoured updates keeping updated
Noor Hidayah Azmi (2017)

20. Final Affinity Diagram (Nur Nuha Mohd Yusuff, 2018)

21. Step 6: Writing up
Finally, we’ll write up our analysis of the data.
Like all academic texts, writing up a thematic
analysis requires an introduction to establish our
research question, aims and approach.
We should also include a methodology section,
describing how we collected the data (e.g.
through semi-structured interviews or open-ended
survey questions) and explaining how we
conducted the thematic analysis itself.
The results or findings section usually addresses
each theme in turn. We describe how often the
themes come up and what they mean, including
examples from the data as evidence. Finally, our
conclusion explains the main takeaways and
shows how the analysis has answered our
research question.

22. The theme “browsing information” was the most common activity found among the
children when using a SNS. As mentioned by Omar et al. (2014), information browsing is a
dominant activity in Malaysia that children perform online through search engines and
websites. However, the findings revealed that the children started using SNSs to search for
information. As highlighted by Ofcom (2008c), SNSs are a potential mine of information
for users to explore. For that reason, information searching was reported as the top priority
among teenagers (Omar et al., 2014). In fact, Livingstone, Bober and Helsper (2005) found
that information searching was more popular among older teenagers for information on
education and entertainment. In contrast, this finding revealed that the behaviour also
exists among children who mainly use SNSs for entertainment to satisfy their information
needs.
The findings revealed that the children browse on a friend’s online content by
following and lurking on people in SNSs. Such activities are considered as passive
interactions or “silent” social interactions, as mentioned by Benevenuto et al. (2009).
Indeed, such behaviour is driven by the SNS structure that shifts the focus from interests or
activities to people (Boyd, 2006). Figure 5.29 depicts the thematic network which emerges
from the analysis relating to the specific behaviour of children with regard to browsing for
information through SNS.
Noor Hidayah Azmi (2017)

24. Diary as observational tool
Collect qualitative data about user behaviour, activities and
experience with technology
Used as a tool for indirect observation of something
sensitive or private

25. Diary 1: How
children use
social media
(Azmi, N. H.,
2017)
1) With whom are you access SNS and where do
you access SNS
2) Something that attracts you in SNS and
something that bothers you in SNS
4) Image you want to put as profile picture in SNS
To pursue
hobby
To follow
celebrity
To keep in
touch

26. Diary 2: What was elderly user experience
with mobile quran (Ahmad, N. A., 2018)
Peaceful Calm Connectedness Fear God Motivated Energised

27. Diary 3: What
is mobile
phone for
single
mothers? (Ali,
S. F., 2014)
Mobile phone as a tool for everyday coordination

28. Social Media as
observational tool
• To understand user social behaviour on social media
• People tend to express their real personalities on Facebook, rather than idealized
versions of themselves, according to a 2008 study published in Psychological
Science.

29. SM 1: How mothers share about their
children on social media (Nafisah, 2019)
Family
activities
Holiday
Special
events
Achievements
Product
reviews

30. SM 3: Understanding student learning
experience (2019-2020)
Going to
class
Meeting
people
Doing
coursework
Expressing
emotions
Rewarding
themselves

31. SM 3: How Muslim users use Facebook
(Sharifah Nurul Afzan, 2020)
Social
interaction
Dakwah Documentation
Self-promotion Creativity Technology

32. Disadvantages of observation
Ethics Researcher bias
Specific focus on
certain aspects only
Limitations on
interpretation

34. Contact Me
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fariza Hanis Abdul Razak
fariza@tmsk.uitm.edu.my