What is a diary study and how to use it in your research design?
An introduction to using diary studies as a research method
For more best practices see our method overview
Definition of a diary study
Diary studies are a qualitative research method commonly used in fields such as human-computer interaction, psychology, user experience (UX) design, and sociology. This method involves participants keeping a record of their activities, thoughts, or feelings over a certain period, providing insights into their behaviors and experiences in natural settings. Diary studies can capture longitudinal data and are particularly valuable for understanding processes, experiences, and contextual factors that are not easily accessible through other research methods. Diary studies can help reduce the response bias because they eliminiate the presence of the researcher at the time of capturing the data from participants (Carter & Mankoff, 2005).
How to design a diary study
Defining research objectives
The first step in designing a diary study is to clearly define the research objectives. These objectives guide the structure, content, and duration of the study. Research questions should focus on understanding the nuances of participants' behaviors, experiences, or decision-making processes in a real-world context. For instance, a diary study may explore how users interact with a new app in their daily lives or investigate the emotional experiences of patients during medical treatment. According to Bolger, Davis & Rafaeli (2003)there are three types of typical research questions summarized in the following list.- Average Experience: What is an individual's typical or average experience? Diaries can provide reliable data on the typical characteristics and behaviors of individuals and how much they differ from one another. Unlike retrospective self-reports that are prone to bias, diary data can offer more accurate summaries by aggregating experiences over time.
- Time Course: How do a person's experiences change over time, and how do these changes differ among individuals? Diaries are effective for capturing how an individual's experiences and behaviors change over time and how these changes differ across people. For instance, diary studies can reveal daily or weekly patterns, such as fluctuations in intimacy levels or marital satisfaction over time, which might be missed in traditional longitudinal studies.
- Underlying Processes: What processes influence changes in a person's experiences, and how do individual differences affect these processes? Diaries can help uncover the processes underlying within-person variability, such as the impact of social support on intimacy. While these studies are often non-experimental in the scientific sense, they can still provide insights into cause-and-effect relationships by controlling for factors like participants' previous experiences.
Selecting the type of diary study
There are several types of diary studies, each suited for different research questions. The following three types are suggested by Wheeler & Reis (1991).- Signal-Contingent Diaries: Participants record specific behaviors or experiences when prompted by the researcher, often through predefined triggers (e.g. when they use a particular product or experience a specific emotion).
- Interval-Contingent Diaries: Participants make entries at regular intervals (e.g. daily, weekly), which can help capture experiences over time.
- Event-Contingent Diaries: Participants are asked to make entries whenever a particular event occurs, such as feeling stressed or completing a task.
Designing the diary
Designing the diary involves deciding on the format (e.g. paper, digital, mobile app) and structuring the prompts or questions. The format should be convenient and easy to use to minimize participant burden and ensure high-quality data. Questions or prompts should be clear, concise, and aligned with the research objectives. Open-ended questions are often preferred to capture rich qualitative data, but closed-ended questions or Likert scales can also be used to quantify specific experiences or behaviors.Ethical considerations
Diary studies require careful consideration of ethical issues, particularly around privacy and confidentiality. Participants may disclose sensitive information, so it is crucial to provide clear information on how data will be used, stored, and shared. Obtaining informed consent and ensuring participants can withdraw from the study at any time without penalty are essential ethical practices (Corti, Day, & Backhouse, 2000).The analysis of diary study
Diary study data can be complex, involving qualitative narratives, quantitative responses, and multimedia elements. The analysis process often includes several stages:
- Data preparation: in a first step you need to clean and organize the data for analysis. This may include transcribing handwritten or audio entries, coding qualitative data, and entering quantitative data into statistical software. Data preparation also involves anonymizing data to protect participant identities
- Quantitative analysis:If the diary study includes quantitative elements, such as Likert scale responses or frequency counts, statistical analysis can be used to identify trends or relationships. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, frequencies) can provide an overview of the data, while inferential statistics (e.g. regression analysis) can help determine relationships between variables.
- Qualitative analysis: Qualitative analysis methods such as thematic analysis, grounded theory, or narrative analysis are commonly used to analyze diary data. These methods involve coding the data to identify patterns, themes, or narratives that address the research questions. The qualitative analysis of your data can greatly benefit from tools like QDAcity. Qualitative data analysis can provide deep insights into participants' lived experiences, behaviors, and emotions.
Interpretation and reporting
The final step in a diary study is reporting and interpreting the findings. The report should provide a clear narrative that integrates quantitative and qualitative findings, highlighting key themes, patterns, and insights. It is important to relate the findings back to the research objectives and consider the implications for theory, practice, or policy. Reflexivity is also important; you should acknowledge your role in the research process and how your perspectives may have influenced the interpretation of the data. If your participants are available for it, you should also consider doing member checking to confirm that your findings reflect the realities of your participants.
Conclusion on diary studies
Diary studies are a powerful tool for capturing rich, contextual data over time. By following a structured approach to planning, participant recruitment, data collection, analysis, and reporting, researchers can ensure high-quality data and meaningful insights. This method is particularly valuable for exploring complex behaviors and experiences in natural settings, providing a unique window into the lived experiences of participants. It offers the possibility for both quantitative and qualitative analysis and it integrates well into a mixed methods research design. Diary studies can also be an excellent option for method triangulation in a longitudinal study. The fact that the researcher is not present at the time of data collection also helps mitigate some response bias that might be more present when doing interviews.
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