This page is for the duty manager who has already read the usage observation brief and wants the hour-by-hour manners of the day. Application analytics, as we practise it, lives or dies in those manners. Service usage insights that come from a disrupted room are just theatre notes.
The night before
We confirm the opening hour, the name at the door, and whether we need a visitor pass. We ask you not to restock racks or rewrite the window sign. If a fire drill is booked, tell us; we will pick another morning.
Arrival
The observer comes fifteen minutes before opening when the site allows it, or with the first visitors when it does not. They sign in as a visitor. They meet the duty manager, not the whole floor. A two-minute introduction is enough: who we are, that we are watching the public area, that we will not hover during private applications.
The chair
We sit where we can see the door, the queue, and the glass without blocking either. If the only good view is a seat that a frail visitor needs, we move. We do not take the courtesy chair beside the counter.
What goes in the book
Times. Counts of people entering in a quarter-hour. Where they look first. Whether they take a ticket. Whether they sit. Which line of a form stops the pen. How often someone asks “is this the right window?” We do not write names. If a visitor is in distress, the page stays blank for that span.
Lunch and close
We leave the floor at the agreed hour. We do not linger in the tea room to collect gossip. If a staff member wants to talk, we suggest they speak through their manager after the report.
After we leave
Notes are typed at Castlereagh Street. Two people read the draft so one observer’s pet phrase does not become a finding. The report goes to the person who commissioned it, not to a general inbox unless you ask. The debrief is a conversation, not a slide display. Bring the people who actually stand at the glass.
What we pack
A lined notebook, two pens, a watch, a floor-plan sketch you send us, and a card with the practice telephone. No cameras unless a separate letter says otherwise — and even then, never faces.
If you want those hours on your floor, request a field day.