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Diary studies 0:28
A 28-second explainer of Diary studies, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Diary studies demo
What this video covers
A diary study asks participants to log their experiences themselves, in the moment, over days or weeks - capturing what happened, when and how it felt, as life actually unfolds. It trades the one-shot snapshot of an interview for a record over time, which is the only way to study habits, long arcs and infrequent events without relying on faulty memory.
The week of little in-the-moment notes - the 7am frustration, the small Thursday win, the Sunday "gave up again" - told a story the single end-of-week summary completely flattened. Asked to recall it later, all that texture collapsed into "yeah, it was mostly fine." Capturing the moments as they happen is exactly what a diary study is for.
