IDEAS

User diary: From the lab to everyday life

october 30, 2007José Álvarez, Dorothy Silva, Jesús Sotoca.

Miguel is a 22 years old student.  He has just finished class and he’s heading for his rugby team training. On his way he passes in front of a travel agent’s billboard. There is one offer that interests him and he would like to know more about it. Luckily there is a web page address on the ad, but he will have to wait until he gets home to check it out. If he had had internet access on his mobile he would have been able to check it out right then. Miguel takes out his key holder diary and writes: “Check travel information while going to training”. In this diary he has been writing down all the times he would have needed to have access to the Internet in his daily life. When the week ends he will come to the offices of DNX and he will chat about it with one of the technicians working on the study “Internet and mobility, new use scenarios” in which he is participating.

This situation that Miguel has lived points to one of the main challenges that we, the people who work in the contextual research of new technologies field, face every day: to cover the distance that exists between a laboratory environment and the daily contexts of a user’s real life.

LOOKING INTO EVERY DAY LIFE

Many of the techniques used in qualitative research are based on conversation with people (users) in laboratory situations (discussion groups, triads, in depth interviews, user tests), a rigorous investigation model and valid for analyzing some dimensions of people’s practices, but with clear limitations when trying to understand  in a broad way the conditions of use of technologies. 

It seems clear that the emergence of new technologies opens possibilities for the appearance or modification of the users’ behavior patterns. As in Miguel’s case, the access to the internet through mobile devices creates new use scenarios, and therefore new expectations and needs. In the same way, the peer to peer downloading applications or the online communities (YouTube, Flickr, Myspace, lastfm,…) have changed the way in which users access and share multimedia contents in the Net. 

If we want to analyze and understand these phenomena in depth, is advisable  to look into people’s everyday life (journeys, routines, activities) during extended periods of time and to observe how the technology is integrated into their lives, a “user diary” is the key.

There exist investigation techniques that try to observe and understand the behavior of users in real use contexts (contextual observation, interviews in situ or remote user tests). In this sense, the user diary constitutes a technique whose strength and power lies in its capacity to know the “here and now” of the user, to know his circumstance and thus enter the moments of the day, when he really needs the technology. 
With other techniques we would have been satisfied with what Miguel would have told us in the brief period of time that the interview lasts in the laboratory. But, with the user diaries, Miguel has many and different moments during the day to tell us about his concrete situations, his singular needs, on the whole about his real experience. This does not mean that the interview, perhaps the most used qualitative technique along with the discussion groups, is not valid; it is just that both techniques allow collecting information of a different nature. The user diary grants us the gift of the opportunity, to catch the exact moment in which a user applies the technology within his habitual environment.

Con otras técnicas nos hubiéramos conformado con lo que Miguel nos hubiera comentado en el breve espacio de tiempo que dura la entrevista en el laboratorio. Pero, con los diarios de uso, Miguel dispone de muchos y diferentes momentos al día para hablarnos de sus casos concretos, de sus necesidades singulares, en definitiva, de su experiencia real. Esto no quiere decir que la entrevista, la técnica cualitativa quizá más utilizada junto con los grupos de discusión, no sea válida; es sólo que ambas técnicas permiten recoger información de distinta naturaleza. El diario de uso nos otorga el don de la oportunidad para atrapar el momento exacto en el que un usuario utiliza la tecnología dentro de su entorno habitual.

  Therefore, trying to make a listing of the main descriptive characteristics and advantages of the user diary, they would be the following ones:

• The user comments on the use of a certain application, device or technology during a more or less extended period of time while immersed in his every day environment.
• The metaphor of the diary allows the investigator to design tasks and to talk to the users day by day (scenarios and use contexts, motivations, expectations, user’s satisfaction, etc)
• The user answers the assignments and writes his opinions and valuations in the diary, on physical materials (paper diaries) or through the Internet (online diaries)
• The online community format allows the user to generate and exchange information in relation to the subject proposed by the investigator.
• Collaborators in the investigation area as well as the client can follow the study in real time in the role of observers.
• The activities and questions are published on a daily basis, which allows to modify the development of the diary adding tasks or questions according to the first data collected, concrete requests on the part of the client, or changes in the investigation objectives.

ONLINE USER DIARIES AND VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES: MULTITECHNIQUE APPROACH

Traditionally the technique of the user diary has been done with diaries on paper (the users receives a physical printed diary with the activities and questions structured per day). As we will see further on, the paper format continues to be a priority when we work with certain profiles of users, although in dnx it has been relegated exclusively to those specific cases.

In the great majority of the projects that we carry out in dnx, our target audience is familiar with the Internet and mobile telephones, which is the reason why the online user diaries supported by the virtual communities constitute one of the research techniques that we use the most.

Example of user diary on paper

Our way of working consists of the creation of an online community, where all the users of the study participate, and that is moderated at all times by the investigator-technician. The role of the technician is two-fold:

• To set up the activities or questions corresponding to the study, that is to say, to build the user diary. 
• To do a follow up in real time of the development of the community and to moderate it in the broadest sense: to talk with the users, to stimulate use, to resolve incidents, etc.     .

And why we do it this way? The answer is quite simple. The user diary, as we understand it, must be applied with a multitechnical approach. It is not enough to give the participants a notebook and ask them to fill it in; we must combine different techniques so that the result is satisfactory, and so we can generate a rich and ample discourse about our object of study.

Therefore, to individual dynamics such as the accomplishment of the user diary and the interview with the participant, we will incorporate group dynamics as the focus group in the opening sessions.

Example of user online diary

Running in parallel, the application of different techniques within the same project, such as the combination of interview or user test, or discussion groups and user diary, ensures that the results achieved in each of these techniques are complementary, and that the final information can be valued as a whole.

LESSONS LEARNED AND ADVICE

Through practice, in dnx we have learned not to make certain mistakes, or to exploit the potential that the user diary has as an investigation technique. Following, we offer some advice to take into consideration throughout the different phases of a research project: 

0. METHODOLOGIC EXPOSITION

It is appropriate to remember that the choice of methodology of a study must always be made according to the objectives of the investigation, the profile of the users we are going to work with, and thinking of the best method to collect the field information. In addition to the objectives and the profile of the people, it is important to know if there is enough time, because the user diary is a technique that requires being applied for at least a minimum of one week.

1. FIELD PREPARATION, PREPARATION OF THE MATERIALS:

• Create a help and FAQ manual: In case of using online platforms prepare a user manual that explains in a simple and direct way how to use the application and answers the main doubts that can arise in the development of it. Include a contact telephone number so the users can reach you in case they need to. If users that are not familiar with these applications participate, it is advisable to show them a short tutorial before starting. 
• Write the diary tasks in a clear and direct way. Avoid formulating questions where the answer would be ambiguous or that the users can answer with a simple “good” or “bad”, “yes” or “no”. The reasons and justifications for the answers are what give value to a user’s discourse. As an example, we show two ways of asking a user a question,  the closed approach being the one that allows us to obtain the more interesting information:

• Create different access profiles: In the online platforms, take special care in the administration of the profiles. The technician will be the only person who will be able to mediate with the participants. In addition, the presence of clients must not be visible for the participants. If they knew that there are members of the company being analyzed we take the risk that their discourse will be skewed.
• The client must not participate directly in the community: The clients will only be able to act as observers; under no circumstances should they take part in the moderation. Their participation will always have to be bypassed by the investigator who moderates the community. 
• Prepare alternatives for special users: It is usual to have diverse user profiles within a same study, so we will have to be prepared to confront field situations that are different from the online diary, as it is working with users that are not familiar with the technology (for example the Senior audience) or with difficulties of access to it (sight problems, handicapped users, etc.). In these cases, the traditional user diary in paper format can be a lot more effective. It is necessary to consider that, for these users, the use of an online application and the concept of “virtual community” can raise barriers in themselves, which will affect the quality of the field data.
• Create attractive materials: The materials with which the users will work must be simple and attractive to stimulate their participation. Disposable cameras, pocket notebooks, drawing activities, stickers, etc., can motivate the users to relate aspects of their personal life that they consider relevant to the theme of the study.

2.  THE FIELDWORK LAUNCH

• Have a first meeting face to face: It is necessary to call the users for a group session before starting the dynamic. This session has a double objective: Firstly we will explain how the diaries work and we will answer any initial doubts that might arise. Secondly, and almost most importantly, we will generate an atmosphere of cohesion between the users that will be key to their participation later in the community.
  
  It is fundamental that the participants get involved in the tasks, and that they feel motivated, for that reason nothing’s better than a first session, where they can get to know each other face to face, a session to break the ice. We have verified that when the dynamic occurs after this first encounter with the rest of the participants has taken place, the feeling of being part of the group is emphasized, the users feel less like strangers to each other in the dynamic and they are more motivated to participate in it. 
• Verify that everyone is ready to start: On the day of the field launch, contact the participants by telephone to inform them about the starting up of the diary, and to solve possible problems accessing the application.

3. THE CLOSING OF THE FIELDWORK, COLLECTION OF MATERIALS AND FINAL FEEDBACK OF THE USERS

• Call the participants to interview them once the user diary is finished: The interview will serve you to gather the field materials and to investigate tasks or questions that are still not clear. In this case the individual interview facilitates the collection work. 
  
  In this dynamic it is allowed that the participants comment on their experiences with the diary and give suggestions, this information will serve you to enrich the objectives of the investigation and to improve the user diary as field technique. 

4. RESULTS ANALYSIS

The objective of the analysis phase consists in identifying the attitudes, motivations and behaviors that are consistent between the users who have participated in the study, with the purpose of being able to draw conclusions that satisfy the objectives of the study.

In the case of the online communities, there exist two dimensions to the analysis: 

• Individual: Attitudinal analysis of each one of the participants of the field. 
• Group: Analysis of the discourse generated between the members of the community that expresses references of interest in relation to the study object.

 In addition to the visible information, that is to say, what people “tell” us, the moderators experienced in the application of this technique can obtain important data from those things not said or not mentioned.

You could have interpretation keys when relating the written answers for what the users say that they have done when answering or doing the assignments with what “they don’t say”. What’s missing, the silences, could also be significant if in the context of the tasks, the moderator considers it important because it gives some type of detail or relevant nuance in the set of answers. For example, it is possible that the user does not want to tell us that his son helped him configure the mobile, but our experience and a deep discourse analysis indicates to us that he had assistance in the accomplishment of the task. These types of details and data are important for the results of the investigation.