Research should be in context.
Within the last decade, digital tools to capture, analyze, and share powerful in-context insights have risen. Within the pandemic, remote research tools have become the norm. COVID-19 has altered applied research. Diary studies have jumped from pen and paper to phone screens. Imagine a diary study through voicemail entries, text messages, video, or pictures!
According to Carine Lallemand with UXPA Magazine, diary studies allow:
- collecting longitudinal and temporal information;
reporting events and experiences in context and in-the-moment;
participants to diary their behaviors, thoughts and feelings in-the-moment thereby minimizing the potential for post rationalization; and
determining the antecedents, correlations, and consequences of daily experiences and behaviors.
However, you should always try to adjust the method to the target users. If you are conducting a study with elderly people, a pen and paper diary will probably be more appropriate. Your participants should feel comfortable with the process of keeping a diary.
What kind of UX research questions could diaries help answer?
Your diary study research can probably be approached using any of these five diary entry types, or better yet, a combination of several entries.
Moments
People capture recurring experiences as they happen in the real-time moment.
Process
People document key moments of a process in realtime.
Inventory
People show you an inventory of all the things they use or own within a specific topic.
Reflection
People reflect and explain their preferences, memories and motivators.
Ideation
People ideate and present their ideas and suggestions.
Prototyping with patterns
Activity: Spend 5 minutes prototyping within each approach and you'll have an array of options from which to choose. Fill in the blanks on the following statements. The first blank can be expanded to form your mission instructions while the second blank is the basis of mission questions.
Show me every time you _____ and tell me _____.
Show me the high moments and low moments of _____ and tell me _____.
Process
Show me your process as you go about ____ and tell me ____.
Show me how you ____ by capturing key steps and tell me ____.
Inventory
Show me all the ways you _____ and tell me ____.
Show me all the ____ you use/own and tell me ____.
Reflection
Show me how you feel about _____ and tell me ____.
Show me what is important to you about ____ and tell me ____.
Show me 3 things you like and 3 tings you dislike about ______ and tell me ____.
Ideation
Show me your ideas for ____ and tell me ____.
Show me your ideal _____ and tell me ____.
Show me 5 ways we could improve ____ and tell me ____.
