A new era for Diary Studies: Powerful insights without the pain.
Unlocking the true power of the diary study
Diary studies have long been a part of the researcher’s toolkit but they are rarely elevated to centre stage for crucial research projects. Three reasons are at the core of this:
1. The effort for both the researcher and participants has often been too high vs. the reward.
2. The speed to deliver diary projects has almost always been too slow.
3. And, the empathy and contextual data that should be a key strength, often misses the mark.
But thanks to creative tech and a bit of out-of-the-box thinking, diary studies have had a major upgrade. They are a go-to method for getting deep and context-rich insights.
Times have changed. Diary studies today give you power without the pain.
The concept of a diary study is a powerful one; imagine shadowing your research participants in their daily lives, capturing every crucial moment, authentic emotion and contextual nugget that no user interview, focus group or survey can deliver. Diary studies help us to gather rich data and influential artefacts packed with empathy. And you can do all this inclusively - with people with different backgrounds, lifestyles, situations and motivations. So why aren’t more people running diary studies?
Until recently, diary studies were a tough nut to crack – time-consuming for researchers, a slog for participants, and a scramble to process piles of data, often missing the 'why' behind the 'what'. With the effort and investment put into diary studies rarely paying off, it is little wonder they were mostly avoided in favour of something easier.
But fast-forward to today, and smart-thinking platforms have helped give diary studies a radical makeover. The best remote research platforms have overcome the main weaknesses and addressed researcher (and participant) pain points. The result is a research solution that is far more efficient and insightful. This shift has been propelled in particular by three things:
Enhanced platforms. Today’s diary research tools have evolved far beyond the glorified survey or messaging apps that had become the norm in the 2010s. Think dynamic, flexible mobile research hubs that merge diary entries, ethnography, and interviews, all while handling a cocktail of data formats (videos, audio, photos, text, survey responses) with ease.
Automation and AI efficiencies. Thanks to AI, diary studies have made an evolutionary leap in terms of efficiency and practicality. AI and automation are everywhere: transcriptions of video and audio responses, auto-generated question probes, generative thematic coding of qualitative data, automated schedules, reminders and participant emails. All this makes diary studies quicker, smarter, and less of a burden.
Not just for digital natives. Lockdown pushed everyone towards digitalisation. Regardless of age, most of us have become naturals at sharing our experiences, opinions and emotions via messaging and videos apps. The impact this has had on remote research has been game changing, with boosts to both feasibility and representation.
So when should we turn to a diary study?
Diary studies are an ideal solution when the goal is to develop an understanding of authentic ‘in-the-moment’ experiences. Basically, any time data and insight into real experiences, as they are happening, is required, e.g. exploration of needs, motivations, decision-making, feelings, pain points and the context in which they occur. Unlike user interviews, which can stumble on memory lapses, or ethnography, which is often constrained by resources, diaries excel in capturing accurate real-time experiences with comparative ease.
In the digital, media and tech realm, we've discovered four key areas where diary studies really shine:
Identifying audience needs or Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)
Diary studies are ideal for surfacing the functional, emotional and social needs of an audience. They can provide the as-it-happens evidence, rich context and empathy that alternative methods, based on recall and rationalised thinking, will often miss.Generating dynamic Personas
Diary studies are great at building a vivid and authentic picture of audience’s lives, experiences and situations. From foundational profiling surveys to deep empathy via candid videos, photos and screen-shares, diary studies can form the foundation of transformative insight into target Personas.Building Journey Maps
The longitudinal and asynchronous format of diary studies makes them ideal for tracking customer journeys and experiences as they unfold. Whether the experience we want to track is days, weeks or months, diary studies allow us to capture and pin-point critical triggers and decision-making.Experience audits, trials and reviews
Whether it is product trials or competitor reviews, diaries offer in-the-field feedback that staged user-testing just can't match. With real-time screen sharing, you also get a front-row seat to view actual user experiences in context.
But that's not all. Diary studies can be creatively applied in many more ways: Problem space identification, Deprivation studies, Content deep dives, Marketing best practice, Behavioural audits, etc.
So how has tech has streamlined and enhanced diaries?
Here are five key factors that have transformed how we use and deliver diary studies at Waveform:
Do-it-all diary platforms. Effective diary studies require a mix of methods of data collection and analysis tools: videos (including screen-sharing), structured Q&As, surveys, and user interviewing. Until recently diary projects requiring the bolting together of disparate platforms, apps and devices to deliver all of this. Today, just one platform is typically needed, resulting in more flexible project designs, efficient delivery, fresh insights (from fully integrated data) and notable cost savings.
‘Hubs’ for participants and researchers. Effective diary studies hinge on clear participant briefing and ongoing communication. A centralised diary site or app serving as a hub for project tasks, briefing notes, FAQs, troubleshooting, and updates, helps boost engagement and improve the quality of responses.
Automated notifications and messages. Active participation is crucial to the success of any diary study. Whether it is daily reminders to complete diaries, notifications of follow-up questions or broadcasting messages to all participants (often in out-of-office hours), automated notifications have helped increase engagement and maximise data completeness.
AI-Powered Enhancements. Whilst the researcher’s role remains crucial, AI in the forms of automated video transcriptions, keyword and theme identification, and AI-generated follow-up questions has streamlined the whole process and provided a valuable source of initial ideas and unbiased data to kickstart and validate insights.
Any device, anytime, anywhere. The ability to conduct tasks across mobile, tablet and computer ensures that we can be inclusive both in terms of participants but also the occasions where people can participate. It means we can also pick the best platform for different situations, i.e. mobile for in-the-moment responses and empathetic videos, computer for in-depth responses and survey like tasks.
An example: Uncovering Audio Consumers' Jobs-to-Be-Done.
To provide a flavour how diary studies can be used effectively today, we’ve shared an example of a typical project below (based on a recent Waveform study) where this approach takes centre stage:
The research brief
To pinpoint the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) and factors influencing audio listeners' choices among services, devices, or platforms for music, podcasts, and other audio content. The goal is to inform product strategy for the coming year. The research approach must include robust qualitative samples and be inclusive of different backgrounds and lifestyles. The project must be delivered within one month.
The research solution
We would conduct a moderated digital diary study involving 40 participants. To identify the Jobs-to-be-Done that matter most to proposition development, the diary study would focus on capturing moments when audio consumers switched between platforms or devices. Alongside capturing the JTBD that drive choice via a diary, the research would be supplemented with contextual tasks and ongoing asynchronous qualitative ‘interviews’ to surface genuinely fresh insights.
The diary study would have three crucial phases:
Phase 1: Contextual Insight (‘Getting to know you’)
Before we get into the audio diary itself, we would recommend spending a day or two getting to know the participants. The personal and category context gathered here will be crucial in creating illuminating questions, that draw out fresh stories and actionable insights. A typical example of tasks for this first phase could include:
An introduction video task. Starting of the study with a video would help us get to know the participants and get a feel for their lives, situations and what this category (i.e. listening to audio) means to them personally. These videos (and any others in the study) would be automatically transcribed so we could tag anything of interest and grab quotes to help bring the findings to life.
Contextual profiling survey. A short survey provides would provide a crucial foundation for getting to know peoples’ experiences in the category, shape future questions and to segment participants into value based groups (for later analysis). In this instance, we would want to explore the audio streaming services they use, what they listened to (playlists, albums, podcasts), devices they used to listen, whether they are a light vs. heavy listeners, library size, favourite genres, artists / podcasts they follow, etc.
Me & my audio tour. For the final ‘Getting to know you’ task, we would also ask participants to introduce us to their audio worlds via videos, photos and screen-sharing. This could including the devices they use to listen, where they listen, what apps they use on each device and sharing what they have in their digital libraries.
Phase 2: Identifying Audio Jobs-to-Be-Done via a 7-Day Diary.
To generate the Jobs-to-be-Done, we’d want participants to go about their normal lives - do what they always do, listen to what they always listen to. We’d want them to share their needs and experiences with us as they they happen, wherever they are, so a remote multi-device diary would be ideal. We’d want to know how JTBD change across different days, times and situations so a full-week for the diary would be ideal.
Each day we would have two tasks for participants:
In the moment diary. We would create a semi-structured diary form that was a mix contextual survey questions and open-text responses exploring the 5Ws+H (Who, What, Where, When, Why & How) of audio listening. Up to three times throughout the day, participants would complete the diaries as and when they chose or switched between different methods and/or services to listen to audio. And, this would be supplemented with follow-up questions for every diary entry from the research team (with AI kick-starting the questions). Automated email reminders and notifications from the diary platform would prompt participants to complete the diaries and respond to any follow-up questions.
Daily summary video diary. To build empathy and understanding of the JTBD within the context of participants wider lives, we’d also ask everyone to record a daily summary video. This would help ensure the emotional needs and experiences are captured in a way that text alone cannot provide. Again, videos are automatically transcribed so quotes, tags and video clips can be created as we go.
Phase 3: Prioritise and explore the audio Jobs-to-be-Done
The final phase of the study would be to identify the Jobs-to-be-Done for digital audio listeners and surface which are more or less important. For the most important Jobs-to-be-Done we’d want to identify common themes, related jobs (emotional and social), areas of opportunity and the context related to each JTBD.
Identifying a shortlist of JTBD. Identifying the Jobs-to-be-Done for audio would be a complementary blend of ongoing analysis from the research team (tagging the Jobs-to-be-Done for each diary entry daily) and AI supported analysis (to validate the researchers analysis and distil 100+ Jobs-to-be-Done into key propositional themes).
Prioritising the JTBD. Once we had our shortlist we would ask diary participants to complete a sort and rank exercise, to group the identified Jobs (from all participants) by how important they are to the services and devices they chose to listen to audio. We would follow up with each participant to explore the reasons behind their choices.
Explore context and experience for priority JTBD. Finally, we’d explore the JTBD identified as being most how well they can achieve these today, which services support them best, any pain points they experience.
Diary studies have evolved to become one of the most powerful qualitative methods we can deploy as researchers. Yes, they once required significant resources and lots of pain to deliver, but those days have passed. It's time to put diary studies centre stage and appreciate the depth of insight and empathy they can provide.
