A diary study is a qualitative method where participants report on their experiences regularly over a period of time, usually days or weeks. Because people record close to the moment, a diary study captures what they did and felt, not what they remember afterwards. On Zolensa, each entry can be a video, photos, a voice note, text or a few quick questions, and the research team sees it as soon as it is sent.
When to use a diary study
Choose a diary study when the answer depends on time:
- Habits and routines that repeat, like meals, workouts, commuting or screen time.
- Experiences that unfold, like a new product over two weeks, a subscription's first month or recovering from a cold.
- Moments that are easy to forget, like small purchases, irritations or snacks.
- Comparing days, such as weekdays and weekends, or before and after a change.
How a study runs on Zolensa
- Plan the days. Put each task on a study day, from day 1 to day 90. Set when it opens, in the participant's local time, and how many hours it stays open.
- Add "every time" tasks. Mark a task as repeatable for events that happen at random, such as "every time you open the fridge for a snack".
- Invite and start. Day 1 is the day each participant signs the consent form, so people who join late still get every task in order.
- Remind, once. When a task opens, the participant gets one reminder by email, WhatsApp or text message. Reminders never go out at night, and participants can switch them off.
- Follow progress. The dashboard shows entries per day and who has missed tasks. Write to someone who has gone quiet, or ask a follow-up question about one entry.
- Read across time. Filter the responses feed by day, task, group or participant. Let AI find themes across all entries, with the quotes behind each one.
Zolensa features that help
- The Today screen. Participants see what is open today, what is done and what comes next, in their own time zone.
- Uploads that resume. A video keeps sending after a lost connection, so entries from a train or a basement still arrive.
- Mixed answer types. A video for the story, a rating for the mood, a choice for what they used. Rating scales include 1 to 5, 1 to 7, 1 to 10 and 0 to 10.
- Questions that depend on answers. Show "What went wrong?" only to people who picked "It did not work".
- Thank-you message. Participants see your own thank-you note when they send their last task.
- Transcripts and search. Search every entry by word or by meaning, across days.
Plan for these
- Fewer, better tasks. One short task a day beats three long ones. People stay with a study when it fits into their day.
- Same question, same time. If you want to compare days, ask the same core question at the same time each day.
- Use the first entry as onboarding. A light first task, such as "Introduce yourself in 30 seconds", teaches people how recording works.
- Plan for missing days. Decide how long each task stays open. 24 hours is common; a weekend task may stay open longer.
- Close the loop. A follow-up question on day three, about something said on day one, shows people their answers are read.
