Some decisions and customer journeys take longer than others. Take vacation planning or weight loss efforts, for example. These processes don’t happen overnight, and the needs of the customers evolve as they move through the various phases. For occasions such as these, we use diary studies.
A diary study is a longitudinal qualitative research method in which participants use your product or service in their own environment. They record themselves performing tasks and providing feedback using a digital diary, allowing you to gather in-the-moment reactions to experiences from the customers’ homes, workplaces, or wherever they use a product over an extended period.
When setting up a diary study, it's important to:
- Create tasks that are structured and easy to fill in by participants.
- Provide clear expectations to your participants with appropriate deadlines and reminders.
- Incorporate a mix of questions ranging from single-choice, multiple-choice, verbatim, etc. to create a structured task.
- Create an engaging experience by including relevant media and/or stimuli.
- Encourage participants to share images/videos to create deeper engagement and provide greater insights.
Diary studies can yield a vast amount of practical knowledge for significantly less effort and cost than a traditional field study.
If you constantly find yourself wondering how customers use a product or service, then a diary study might be the research solution for you.
Interested in Diary Studies? Contact us and we will connect you with a researcher.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash