Jan 23, 2019
EMERGO BY UL SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS:
“Dear diary, Today I…”
Some people might assume that diaries are only used to record the day-to-day trials and musings of teenagers. But – surprise! – diaries (specifically, diary studies) are actually a valuable method to add to your ethnographic research toolkit. Generally speaking, a diary study is a qualitative research method that involves participants self-reporting data over an extended time period. Participants can record data in physical pen and paper diaries, or using one of many digital platforms that offer added value and efficiency.
In the product and service design industries, diary studies have become a popular user research tool to supplement (or even replace) observations, interviews, and other in-person methods. Within the umbrella of diary methods, there are a variety of ways to tailor the format according to the type of insights you seek – ranging from specific product usage feedback to an in-depth ethnographic picture. Utilizing such studies also stands to benefit human factors engineering and usability research in the medical device and healthcare product sectors.
Below are three major benefits of diary studies you should be aware of when considering how to tackle your user research goals:
Perhaps the benefits described above have you eager to start planning a diary study right away? If so, here’s an overview of the next steps:
*There are dozens of tools out there but Indeemo has worked very well for us. It supports multimedia posts from a mobile device, offers a well-organized researcher dashboard, and facilitates continuous communication with participants.
Erin Davis, MS, CHFP is Managing Human Factors Specialist and Benjamin Basseches is User Researcher at Human Factors Research & Design at Emergo by UL.
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