A mobile diary study uses a portable device to capture a person’s experience. Participants create their entries in the context of their location, on their mobile device, capturing the ‘moment of truth’.
1. Gather your team and define the purpose of your study within the larger research question.
2. Decide on a group of individuals (between 5-10) you would like to study.
3. Make a plan of the type of data you want to collect, taking into account the moment that participants are more likely to submit it with the device.
4. Choose the most suitable platform and write out the automated messages to participants.
5. Make sure your participants are set up to make the entries, provide them with brief and clear instructions.
6. Follow the incoming data during the set period and x hiccups or technical problems in time.
7. Digest the data and set up a new team meeting in which you go through the most interesting data together.
WHEN
This method is typically used at the beginning of the research process.
WHY
Capture data and insights from an individual or group to assess actions, activities, timing of events, habits, behaviours and emotions.
NOTE!
Make sure the technology works well and is easy to use.
OUTPUT
People’s real-life experiences, in diary form.
Next
Use the insights to identify interesting insights and adopt them in your project.
Reference
HULKKO, Sami, et al. Mobile probes. In: Proceedings of the third Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction. ACM, 2004. p. 43-51./SUN, Xu; SHARPLES, Sarah; MAKRI, Stephann. A user-centred mobile diary study approach to understanding serendipity in information research.Information Research-An International Electronic Journal, 2011, 16.3./