For day-in-the-life experiences and ethnography…

An online diary, or ‘online research blog’, is a secure web-page where an individual writes their own personal account, usually enhanced by content such as images, videos, and links to web-pages, and other media. A typical e-diary online research blogging project takes place over a week to several months, with 6-25 participants submitting regular, often daily, entries related to a particular topic area, e.g. day-to-day-experiences, descriptions of events, social commentaries, and personal views and opinions.

online diaries are best used as an ethnographical or contextual research tool for the consumer, public, or medical sector, as they capture unfolding attitudes, perceptions and emotions, and enable you to experience the world through the eyes of your target group. Depending on the sensitivity of the subject matter an online diary can either be private, or available, to other participants, moderators, and clients, for reading and comment. Online diaries can also be used effectively as a component of online community or online bulletin board projects.

Our real-time online diary services are hosted on our cutting edge mylog™ platform, which has supported online diary projects for RNIB and McKinsey. mylog diaries are secure, can be configured to meet a range of research requirements, and allow participants to bring their diaries alive with diverse content, including photos, videos, document files, and RSS feeds. From your home or office computer you can monitor your mylog online diary project, contact the moderator, or post your own comments and probes to participants. We will email you regular synopses of diary content during your project, and as soon as it’s finished, you’ll get the content of all diaries together with an expert summary of key findings.