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Diaries installed from a link.[1]

Three taps puts it on the home screen. Each morning you read a digest of yesterday's entries, every line cited to the entry and the second it came from.

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Sample study
Orbit Rail's commuter diary on day undefined of undefined: undefined participants by day, missed entries flagged.
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Diary studies and mobile ethnography: photo, video, audio and written entries, scheduled activities, and reminders by push, email or SMS.

Every entry lands in the grid the day it's sent.

A diary study asks the same people to record what happens over days or weeks, at the moment it happens, instead of remembering it in an interview.

Participants down the side, days across, each entry a square in its activity's colour. Two missed days in a row get a flag before anyone drops out for good.

Northway Research

Day 6 of 14

Add today's entry

This morning's commute. Due by 21:00

A photo or video of the departures board

Platform 4, Hollins CrossPhoto, 2.1 MBWhat happened nextVideo, 0:48

What did you do when the 08:12 was cancelled?

Got the bus in the end. 25 minutes late.
Amara's phone on day 6, in Northway Research's colours. Send the entry and watch her row.
Sample study
The researcher's grid on day 6. Amara's square for today appears when the entry is sent.

Three taps to install, then it works like an app.

Participants open the link in their phone's browser and add the diary to the home screen: Share then Add to Home Screen on an iPhone, the install prompt on Android. From then on it opens like an app, and reminders arrive like an app's.

Entries save on the phone as they're written. On a train with no signal, the video waits and uploads when the phone is back online.

Sample study
The diary's home on day 6, opened from the home screen. Reminders are on.

An intake survey first, the diary the next morning.

A screener and an intake survey run first, then the diary starts the next day and exit questions close it. One link, the same participants.

Stroop is the all-in-one research and testing platform. Run usability tests, prototypes, surveys, tree tests, diaries and IATs in one study, and get results back transcribed, scored and charted, with every finding linked to the session it came from.

Sample study
One study, one link, the same participants from the first block to the last.

A digest of each day, every line cited.

Video entries arrive transcribed and summarised. The digest groups what people sent, counts who said it, cites the entries and keeps the ones that disagree. Clips from entries cut into a reel like any recorded session.

How analysis works
Sample study
Day 5's digest: three patterns from 24 entries, each cited, one against.
Sample study
The entry behind [P04 00:11]: a 48-second video, transcribed, with the cited words marked.

Where a native app wins.

Two weeks with 30 participants is $280. See every rate

  • It's a web app on the home screen, so it can't log location in the background or record the phone's screen by itself. For screen recordings, participants use the phone's own recorder and upload the file.
  • On an iPhone, push reminders start once the diary is on the home screen. Until then they come by email, and the participants table shows who hasn't installed it.

Questions

How long should a diary study run?

Long enough to catch the behaviour twice. A weekly shop needs two to four weeks; a daily commute shows its pattern in five to ten working days. Past four weeks, entries thin out unless the prompts change, so release new activities as the study goes rather than asking the same question for a month.

How many participants do I need?

Usually 15 to 30 for a qualitative diary. Recruit a few more than you need, because some drop out in the first three days. The first day rate covers up to 30 people, so the spare places cost nothing.

How do prompts and reminders work?

Each activity has a release time and a due time in the participant's own time zone. Reminders go by push once the diary is on the home screen, by email before that, and by SMS for anyone who agreed to texts. Quiet hours and a daily cap stop it nagging.

Can I pay incentives in instalments?

Yes, though Stroop doesn't send the money. Write the deal on the diary's home screen (complete 12 of 14 days for a £40 voucher), and the participants table shows each person's entries and compliance, so you can pay a first instalment at day 7 and the rest at the end.

Who recruits the participants?

You do: a client's customer list, a recruiter, or a panel such as Prolific, sent the link. dscout and Indeemo quotes include recruitment and running the study for you, which is real work and part of why they cost more.

Send the link tonight. Read the digest tomorrow.

30 study-days free. Any method. No card.

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