How do you run a smartphone diary study that captures what people actually do, not just what they remember? This free, one-hour course module explains when to use smartphone diaries, in-the-moment research and mobile ethnography, and how to design mobile tasks, moderate during fieldwork and plan for the data before you launch.

Module 3 of the six-part Digital Qual Masterclass Series is taught by Laura Pulito, Vice President of Research at Recollective, and is free to watch on demand thanks to the support of Recollective. It’s built around one principle: don’t ask people to remember what you can ask them to show you.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this module, you’ll be able to:

Who this course is for

• Qualitative and market researchers planning diary studies, mobile missions or ethnographic research
• UX, product and CX researchers who need to understand real-world behaviour and journeys
• Client-side insights teams commissioning longitudinal or in-context research
• Researchers exploring how AI can support moderation and analysis of mobile data
• Students and early-career researchers looking for free qualitative research training

What’s covered in Module

Why recall isn’t enough

Why people’s later explanations often differ from what actually happened, and how capturing experiences closer to the moment shows what people noticed, did and felt, and what influenced their decisions.

How smartphone research has changed since 2020

From the phone as a convenient response channel to a window into behaviour and context, with blended approaches, scheduled, triggered and adaptive activities, screen recording and AI-assisted probing and analysis.

How to run a smartphone diary study

What a smartphone diary is, when it’s the right choice, and the four ways to trigger entries, with practical guidance on defining events, setting cadence and adding an end-of-period reflection.

In-the-moment research

When to capture feedback during or immediately after an experience, and a checklist for capturing the moment without disrupting it.

Mobile ethnography and the say–do gap

How participants’ phones become your eyes and ears, why people can’t always tell you what they do, and how a single activity can combine diary, in-the-moment and ethnographic elements. Includes practical advice on protecting the privacy of people who haven’t consented.

What mobile makes possible

The range of ways one device can capture an experience, from selfie and environmental video to screen recording and ratings, and how to design tasks around show, tell, measure and reflect.

Designing the study: seven decisions before you launch

Identifying the moments, choosing when to capture them, deciding what to capture, writing tasks people can actually complete, designing for real life, moderating while the study runs and planning for the data before you collect it.

Putting it into practice, with AI and the researcher

How the series’ coffee packaging study uses a pre-arrival exploration, an unboxing, a usage diary and a final reflection, and where AI can help during and after fieldwork while the researcher interprets what it means.

About the instructor

Laura Pulito is Vice President of Research at Recollective. She has more than 20 years’ experience in the research industry on both the client and supplier side, and was a Recollective customer before joining the company. She specialises in digital qualitative methods and helps brands, agencies and researchers design online research projects.

About the Digital Qual Masterclass Series

The Digital Qual Masterclass Series is a free, six-module course on modern online qualitative research, hosted by Insight Platforms and supported by Recollective. It refreshes the 2020 Fundamentals of Online Qualitative Research course for a world of new platforms, blended methods and AI. The content is platform-agnostic and applies regardless of the tools you use.

1. Planning & Designing Modern Qualitative Research
2. Live Video Interviews & Groups, including AI-moderated interviews
3. Smartphone Diaries & In-the-Moment Research (this module)
4. Asynchronous Qual & Short-Term Communities
5. Long-Term Insight Communities
6. Qualitative Analysis & Reporting

Frequently asked questions

Is this smartphone diary study course free? Yes. All six modules of the Digital Qual Masterclass Series are free to watch on demand, supported by Recollective.

Do I need to have watched the earlier modules first? No. Each module builds on the same planning framework and refers back to an example coffee study, but Module 3 works on its own. Module 1 covers the foundations of planning and designing modern qualitative research, and Module 2 covers live video interviews and groups.

How long is Module 3? About one hour. You can also read the full edited transcript as a downloadable PDF and download three one-page handouts on smartphone diaries, in-the-moment research and mobile ethnography.

What is the difference between a smartphone diary, in-the-moment research and mobile ethnography? A smartphone diary describes structure over time: participants use their phone to document experiences across multiple occasions. In-the-moment research describes timing: capturing feedback during or immediately after an experience. Mobile ethnography describes an observational perspective: participants show their environment and behaviour so researchers can see context. The approaches can overlap in a single study, but they are not interchangeable.

When should I use a smartphone diary study? Use a diary when one conversation can’t tell the whole story: to understand routines and repeated behaviours, product usage over time, customer or patient journeys, changing attitudes, high and low moments, adaptation and learning, or the gap between intention and behaviour. A useful test is to ask what you would miss if you only heard from someone once.

How do you design in-the-moment tasks without disrupting the experience? Walk through each task from the participant’s perspective and ask whether it can be completed naturally, how long it will take, whether it is safe and appropriate, whether it will change the behaviour, whether part of the response can wait, and whether participants know when to respond. Often a quick capture in the moment followed by a deeper reflection later works best.

Is the course specific to Recollective’s platform? No. The content covers the broader online qualitative research landscape and applies regardless of which platform you use.