6 Tips for Better Participant Engagement in Diary Studies

Summary: Keeping participants engaged and providing good-quality entries in diary studies can be challenging; recruit the right people, incentivize them appropriately, and keep recording entries simple.

A diary study is a longitudinal research method where participants report their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors over time .

Since diary studies are longer than most user-research studies and require initiative on the part of the participant to record entries, they can be plagued with issues like forgetfulness, dwindling interest in the study, and increasing fatigue or boredom in reporting entries. In this article, we’ll discuss 6 tips to keep participants engaged during a diary study.

Tip 1. Recruit Wisely

Some people make better participants in diary studies than others. Diary studies often require participants to respond to prompts in a timely manner and in sufficient detail . Therefore, it’s important you recruit participants that have time to participate and that might enjoy sharing or logging their activities and thoughts over time.