INTRODUCTION
The goal of this project was to use a diary study to gain insights into participants’ experiences when it comes to waiting. Participants here were asked to complete a series of questions for 3 consecutive days in order to understand their behaviours, emotions, and experiences when it comes to waiting. The UX Problem here was determining what the behaviours and emotions were of people while they wait. This project commenced in December on campus with an in-class activity where the assigned group members got together and brainstormed ideas and gathered information for the project. Each member was then responsible for gathering data from their chosen participants in order to collect and analyse the results.
DATE: Fall 2017
PROJECT: Inclass Industry Partner
TEAM: Nasrullah, Hiral, Jupiter, Ray, Sara, Supriya
URL: https://medium.com/diary-study-waiting/project-overview-e936cb26d627
SKILLS: EYE TRACKING, USER TESTING, SCAN PATHS, HEAT MAPPING
OPPORTUNITY / PROBLEM
Organization Y, who creates educational media for children, has recently decided to expand their user base by creating short educational media for young adults. Now being hired by this company to help them to understand people’s current behaviour, emotions, and experiences of waiting, conducting research on what behaviours and emotions people experience while waiting will be key. The findings from this research will help them identify ways to improve people’s wait experiences and will help inform both the type of media they create as well as how it’s consumed. Also engaging in this type of research has given the opportunity to better understand something that one may not have realized to be important to consider.
PLANNING PHASE
The project started with the group brainstorming a research question for the diary study. Two close-ended and two open-ended questions were then selected by the team to give the chosen participants. After creating the Diary Study Prompt, participants were given access to a Google Drive with Instructions on how to submit their entries online for their convenience. The group then reviewed the assembled plan and confirmed each member’s role and responsibilities for the study.
RUNNING STUDY PHASE
The study ran for 3 days consistently where each participant was given the instructions to submit 2-5 diary entries per day every time they were in a situation where they were waiting. They would complete the Google Form online, answering the 4 given questions, in order for the group to track the incoming data and contact participants if needed. Based on the information provided, the important points were collected for analysis.
ANALYZE PHASE
After the review of the data collected during the study, affinity diagramming aided in organizing them into specified groupings. This led to discovering the relationships from the experiences of waiting from participants. Subsequently formulating the Affinity Diagram into a digital format allowed for the themes to be recognized. This gave way to realizing the key themes of the attitudes and behaviours people have towards waiting. These included viewing, attitudes/feelings, activities, socializing, and situational behaviours.
REPORT PHASE: BLOG PRESENTATION
The final stage of the Diary Study Project was structured as a blog, illustrating the Project’s steps towards completion. Each stage has been laid out, demonstrating how the data has been collected and analyzed to attain the project’s results. Results have shown that other things that go on in participants’ lives had a great influence towards their emotions and behaviours while they were waiting. So understanding one’s experience is crucial in helping to realize many things.
REFLECTIONS
Throughout this Diary Study I have learned a lot to gain the correct information that is needed for this type of Project. For one thing having a clear Diary Study Prompt is important to gaining the right information from participants. Making the entire Diary Study short and simple for the participant is also very important to ensure their commitment to completing all required entries. As well as having patience when dealing with a busy participant is required as they tend to have other life commitments that may interfere with them keeping on top of the Diary Study.