Observation of context is a qualitative research tool to help understand context and to show what people do. This tool involves collecting data using one’s senses. It is about getting a perspective or opinion on what is happening, what’s going on, who you’d like to spend more time with. This is a guide for an individual researcher or a group of researchers to use within their chosen setting (e.g. a town, organisation or group). It is likely to take more than one observation to get a complete picture and observations may change as more is learned about the group/ place being observed.