The Observer is a professional system for the collection, analysis, presentation and management of observational data. You can use it to record activities, postures, movements, positions, facial expressions, social interactions or any other aspect of human or animal behavior. No more time-consuming and error-prone data transcription. Instead, analysis reports are available instantly. These supply you with objective and quantitative data for direct conclusions or further research.

Data collection
During an observation session, key presses are used to log events and the time at which they occur. You can also use a mouse or a computer pen as the input device. The Observer time-stamps each entry and checks it against the user-defined configuration. Any data-entry errors can be corrected online or after a session has been completed. During observations, you can add notes and comments, which are stored together with the data.

Data analysis
Once data collection has been completed, powerful analysis options are only a few keystrokes away. You can explore your data in time-event tables and plots, or generate reports with statistics on frequencies and durations, the sequential structure of the process or the co-occurrence of events. Results can be displayed on screen, printed on paper or saved in a file on disk. 

• Lag Sequential Analysis. This technique examines how often certain events are preceded or followed by other events. For instance, in a usability evaluation, The Observer tells you how often a certain operation is followed by an error. You can choose between state lags or time lags and set the lag length.
• Reliability Analysis. Reliability analysis measures the level of agreement between pairs of raters. Reliability is expressed as an index based on the degree of agreement between the scores in two data files. Whether an entry in an observational data file is scored as a match or as an error is modified by the user. You can set the tolerance level by defining a time window within which entries are scored as matches. 
• Time-Event Table. A time-event table is a chronological listing of all recorded events, sorted in columns for the various subjects and classes of behavior. It visualizes the change of states and the occurrences of events in the course of time.
• Time-Event Plot. This is a graph in which observational data are plotted against time. Time-event plots give you a quick overview of what happened and when. You can define the content of each trace and zoom in on temporal details. You can select the drawing style, and also let the timeline scroll on the screen. You can even let The Observer emulate a traditional strip-chart recorder.
• Elementary Statistics. This provides a wealth of descriptive statistics on the frequency and duration of events or states. Statistics can be calculated for subjects, individual behaviors, modifiers, and combinations of those. You can split or lump categories, using nesting levels to create complex queries, define (iterative) time windows, average data across observations, and much more!

For additional calculations and inferential analysis (hypothesis testing), you can export the summary tables to spreadsheets, databases or statistics packages. The Observer formats the output for the package of your choice.

More information
For more information about the features of The Observer 5.0 Basic fill out a form to request information.