NewQual Diaries (Part 2 of 5)
The qualitative diary is evolving far beyond traditional pen and paper. Trends in social media sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, combined with pervasive personal technologies, have enabled the “newqual” diary which can include online, video, mobile and audio data. Two qualitative research consultants (Kristin Schwitzer and Dana Slaughter) share their experience with these new approaches, as originally published in QRCA’s Fall 2011 Views magazine. This is Part 2 of 5 in a series of posts.
Among the newqual diary formats, online diaries are the most popular. Online diaries, which sprang from personal blogs, pre-date the other newqual formats.
Online diaries are a good choice when there is a long series of specific questions for each entry (i.e., too tedious to answer by audio, mobile or video). They also are appropriate when there is a need to capture imagery (such as photos and online images) with the written entry.
Online diaries are usually set up in one of two ways, with the researcher providing either:
- One or two sentences of direction that allow participants to elaborate and share as much or as little as they would like, or
- A specific set of questions to answer for each diary entry.
Either way can be effective, depending upon the diary objectives. In the former, participants write their blog entry from memory, ideally on the same day that the event occurred. This is less taxing for the participant, but it often lacks consistent details across entries and across participants. In the latter format (a specific set of questions), participants can be provided with note-taking pages that are printouts of the online questions, and they can be asked to record their answers “in the moment.” Participants later transfer these notes to the online site.
Online diaries are the one newqual format in which the old pen and paper are still a handy aid to data collection, and they facilitate the capturing of more details and improve the accuracy and consistency of responses.
A successful application of an online diary we executed was studying wine-drinking occasions, where participants showed us a varied range of those moments over two weeks.
They took a photo of each occasion, provided an emotional image to capture feelings in the moment and answered a series of questions detailing the who, what, where, when, etc. Both the photos and emotional images illuminated the rituals and motivations for the wine moments, fulfilling the desired level of detail for the client.
Next up in the series: Video Diaries. The qualitative diary is evolving far beyond traditional pen and paper. Trends in social media sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, combined with pervasive personal technologies, have enabled the “newqual” diary which can include online, video, mobile and audio data. Two qualitative research consultants (Kristin Schwitzer and Dana Slaughter) share their experience with these new approaches, as originally published in QRCA’s Fall 2011 Views magazine. This is Part 2 of 5 in a series of posts.
