A pause in a finance app may mean confusion or a deliberate check of where money is going. Both take time, but they call for different design responses.
The six-city study I worked on included 60 tests and interviews and produced 86 issues. The difficult part was keeping each issue connected to inspectable evidence.
Three separate entries
First, record the action: the task and state in which someone paused, backtracked, or asked for help. Second, write the interpretation and alternative explanations. Third, propose a change and a way to check it.
A disagreement can then return to the same recording. If one person sees unclear wording and another sees careful risk assessment, we can identify their evidence and what is missing.
Categories must lead back to events
The issues were organized under navigation, feedback, visual design, consistency, terminology, and software faults. Categories helped assign ownership and compare priorities. Records kept those categories open to challenge.
I now use AI to help organize material, but a name for a theme does not establish an explanation. I still ask which events support it, which conflict with it, and whether it helps plan a testable change.