How do your users repeatedly use your product, and how do their perceptions change over time? Longitudinal and diary studies involve gathering feedback and data repeatedly, often from the same sources, over a period of time. These types of studies have often been seen as expensive, slow, and too much hassle to conduct. At UserTesting, we think the opposite is true! We conduct longitudinal and diary-based studies to help our clients gain in-depth insights into how users view, work with, and incorporate products into their daily lives. Get access to our on-demand recording here: http://info.usertesting.com/OnDemandWebinarLongitudinalandDiaryStudies_September2014.html

1. Longitudinal and Diary Studies
with Bryan Kern and Lisa Preville
Host: Chris Hicken, COO of UserTesting
Bryan Kern
UX Research Manager
at UserTesting
Tweet with other attendees:
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Connect with UserTesting
Twitter: @UserTesting | Facebook.com/Usertestingcom
Lisa Preville
UX Researcher at
UserTesting

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Agenda
● What are longitudinal studies and diary studies?
● When are they appropriate?
● Combining both methods
● Three things to keep in mind
● Case Studies
○ Longitudinal (with some diary thrown in!)
○ Diary
● Conclusion/Q&A

3. What Are Longitudinal Studies and Diary
Studies?
A longitudinal study is an observational method that tracks
users over a period of time.
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A diary study is an observational method that records
emotions and perceptions directly from a user.

4. When Are Longitudinal Studies Appropriate?
● Site/app designed for daily use
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5. When Are Longitudinal Studies Appropriate?
● Gaming and interactive media
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6. When Are Longitudinal Studies Appropriate?
● Long or complex onboarding processes
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7. When Are Longitudinal Studies Appropriate?
● Understanding human behavior in relation to a digital
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product

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When Are Diary Studies Appropriate?
● Self-reported insight into your product

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When Are Diary Studies Appropriate?
● Searching for an apartment

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When Are Diary Studies Appropriate?
● Social Media

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When Are Diary Studies Appropriate?
● Music Apps

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Combining Both Methods
Why do we do this?
At UT we often incorporate some level of diary-analysis in
our longitudinal studies.

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Three things to keep in mind
● Less is more
● Repeated (longitudinal) testing
● Deeper, not broader

14. Case Study: Longitudinal (with a little diary thrown in!)
● Study looking at a fitness app.
● Wanted to learn about their habits alongside tracking
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diet/exercise.

15. Longitudinal Study Timeline
Day 1:
Initial call w/
client
Day 2:
Test plan and
preparation
Day 3:
Recruitment
Day 4:
Unmoderated
tests for
usability Day 5-10:
Users
complete
diaries Day 11:
moderated
follow up
sessions

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Benefits of a Longitudinal approach
● Perfect study for longitudinal.
● Added a diary component.

17. Longitudinal Study: Results
Major findings for the app included:
● Users prefer to be able to sync their fitness app with other similar apps
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they were using at the time.

18. Longitudinal Study: Results
Major findings for the app included:
● Users have difficulty using the app while dining out- found it easier to use
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this app when at home.

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Longitudinal Study: Results
Major findings for the app included:
● A majority of users felt the app was useful in helping them with their
weight-loss goals.

20. Longitudinal Study: Results
Conclusions:
● Without a longitudinal/diary approach, we wouldn’t have
been able to obtain the findings that we did with this
study.
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Case Study: Diary Study
We did a study where we examined how people
incorporate digital products into their normal work day.

22. Diary Study Timeline
Day 1:
Initial call w/
client
Day 2-5:
Test plan
writing and
preparation
Day 6:
Recruitment
Day 7:
Send
instructions Day 8:
Users
complete
their diaries
Day 9-10:
moderated
sessions w/
users

23. Diary Study Benefits and Results
Over the course of 1 day we can get a wealth of information from our users.
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● Participation flexibility
● Enthusiastic users = robust information

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Diary Study: Results
Example of a user entry:

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Moderated Follow Up Sessions
Always recommended practice for either longitudinal and/or diary studies!

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Diary Study: Results
Conclusions:
● The use of a diary study was critical to understanding user behavior
outside the realm of usability.
● The results would not have been possible without the flexibility and wealth
of self-reported information that a diary study offered.

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Conclusions
● Longitudinal studies are great for sites/apps that are touched by users
every day or may have a range of user experiences over time.

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Conclusions
● Diary studies are great for getting detailed information about user behavior,
attitudes, opinions, or habits.

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Conclusions
● These studies are easy to do with the UT platform, can happen quickly
(dependent on the length of study), and offer great insights for your
websites and products.

30. UserTesting
Enterprise
Accelerated learning + deep insights + your target audience