Designing diary studies for academics and other ‘busy’ professionals

Challenging assumptions via the work-related diary design framework (WDDF)

Bibliographic Data

ID24019257
AuthorsE Henderson (0000-0002-5723-9560, University of Warwick, corresponding author), Ahmad Akkad (0000-0003-1998-0144, University of Warwick)
Year2026
Publication date2026-08-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14687941261469413
OpenAlexW7201973981
LanguageEN
References cited39

The justification for decisions taken when designing diary studies receives limited commentary in the existing literature. However, where design decisions are recounted, often concerns are expressed relating to potential failure of diary studies, especially in studies with ‘busy’ participants such as work-related studies. Several assumptions about the ramifications of diary design decisions underlie these concerns, but they need to be surfaced and discussed in order for the diary method to evolve. This article proposes the work-related diary design framework for the development and design of work-related diary studies which is built from a critical literature review reading across 50 articles for assumption-related subtext. The framework is illustrated and explored with three qualitative diary studies with academics as participants, which were conducted by the authors; structured reflections on the design and conduct of the three studies are interwoven with the elucidation of the framework.

Design methods · Design rationale · Order (exchange) · Qualitative research · Reading (process) · Research design · Data Analysis and Archiving · Qualitative Research Methods and Applications · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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Open DOIOpen Access