Diary Study

What is this?
A diary study asks participants to keep a diary over a period of time to record different aspects of a service or experience.
 

When should I use this? 
Use a diary study when the challenge you’re investigating affects people over a long period of time and you have reliable and willing participants. 
 

More about this...
The advantage of diary studies over other methods is that they can encompass first-person accounts over a long period of time when site visits or observations aren’t practical. In the education context, a diary study could be used to record students’ thoughts during multiple days of standardized testing or a parent’s journey through a school choice process.