What is a diary study?

- Diary studies…are a way to capture people's behavior over time…so that you can understand their habits,…how frequently they perform certain tasks,…and how they feel about performing those tasks.…Most diary studies ask participants…to answer questions each day…or each time they perform a particular task.…Doing this over a period of time…lets researchers see how behaviors change over time.…This is useful to see how long it takes someone…to get proficient with a new product…or to track them through a decision process…like buying a new car.…

You might just want to get a glimpse…into a specific aspect of their regular lives…to see what issues they face…that you could solve with a new application or service.…We used to collect this information by getting participants…to keep a physical paper diary or journal.…I've also given participants a video camera…and sent them a new video tape each week…along with a reply paid envelope…to send back the previous week's tape.…Nowadays, a lot of diary studies are run using cell phones.…