Diary method
The diary method asks participants to keep a record of an experience over days or weeks, logging each episode near the time it happens, so researchers can follow how behavior and feelings change across a stretch of ordinary life.
How it works
The researcher briefs participants on what to log and when: at set times, at each occurrence of a behavior ("every time you pay a bill"), or when prompted. Entries can be text, photos, video or voice notes, submitted through an app or a platform. The researcher reviews entries as they arrive, sends follow-up questions and often ends with a debrief interview.
Because entries are made in the moment, diaries reduce the memory errors of asking people to recall weeks later, and they reveal how experiences unfold across days and channels. They demand commitment, so incentives, clear instructions and regular prompts keep participation up.
A worked example
For their first 3 weeks, 25 new customers of a broadband provider log every interaction with the service, 410 entries in all. Seventeen of them contact support in week 2 about the same confusing first bill, a problem that never showed up in the post-onboarding survey.
Related
Automate this in Pulse
Patterns spotted across the diary entries, such as the Sunday-night spike in complaints, can become areas in a Pulse brief for a closing interview that asks every participant about them.