“Observation” was the label we used for the best way to learn about people in the context of a particular design problem, implying that you needed to look at what people really do in a situation, rather than rely on the conventional technique of asking them about what they think and do. When you are trying to understand the latent needs and desires of potential users before a design is created, it is important to learn about their existing habits and context of use—things they are rarely able to tell you about explicitly.