Research Methods in Information Science/Usability and user experience studies

Diary studies

There are two types of diary studies:

1. Elicitation studies, where participants capture media that are then used as prompts for discussion in interviews. The method is a way to trigger the participant’s memory.
2. Feedback studies, where participants answer predefined questions about events. This is a way of getting immediate answers from the participants.

Advantages

They allow:

• collecting longitudinal and temporal information;
• reporting events and experiences in context;
• determining the antecedents, correlations, and consequences of daily experiences.

Limitations

• Diary studies might generate inaccurate recall, especially if using the elicitation type of diary studies.
• Interpreting the expressed emotions and experiences is highly challenging. It can require special training in psychology, especially when participants record their experiences in multiple formats (e.g. text and pictures).
• Low control
• User participation tends to decline, especially without investigator involvement.
• Risk of disturbing the action.
• The instrument (e.g. paper format diary) is often disconnected from the evaluated application (e.g. a smartphone app). This leads to situations in which the instrument is unavailable and the user cannot record their experiences.