Diary Study

Uncover thoughts and attitudes from your target customer.

Not all user research takes place in the confines of the lab or requires an in-person presence. A diary study allows us to gather in the moment reactions to experiences from the customers’ homes, workplaces or wherever they use a product. This kind of study can yield a vast amount of practical knowledge for significantly less effort and cost than a traditional field study.

How diary studies work

A diary study is essentially a qualitative research method in which participants (generally people who have been recruited because they either are or resemble current customers) use your product or service for a designated period of time in their own environment. They then record themselves performing tasks and providing feedback using a digital diary.

Diary studies collect information about how participants use your product or service, as well as their opinions about the experience, their likes/dislikes and their suggestions for how a product or service could be improved.

Diary studies can last anywhere from a few days to a month or longer. While marketers and researchers lack the ability to observe diary studies in real-time, they can nonetheless glean mountains of insights from these personal, engaging, real-world experiments.

When to use a diary study

Consider incorporating a diary study if you wish to obtain a deeper understanding of any of the following:

How do your target customers naturally perform a task?
How frequently do customers use your product, and what are their experiences?
What kind of environment will your product have to operate within?
How can your product solve unanticipated challenges revealed during the study?
How can you improve the customer experience for current customers?

Ready to get started?

Usability Sciences has successfully conducted a number of diary studies for many different clients. We’ll help you through the planning process, recruiting, program development and post-study assessment. The result? Information you can use to make life better for your customers.

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