Diary Study – Research Plan

Pre-Diary IDIs (60 mins)

Research goals:

Get familiar with the participants’ relationship history and current tools to communicate with each other. Explore how often and how they communicate with each other when not in the same space.

IDI

Setup and Introduction (5 mins)

History and Status of Relationship

How and when did you meet?
1. How long have you known each other?
1. Was there a milestone or some agreement that you are mutually exclusive, and not dating anybody else? How did that happen?
1. Did you communicate it to the outside world, such as friends or family? If yes, how?

Communication with each other

How often do you communicate with each other? About what?
- Do you have any “checkins” that are not really about sharing info, just to say “hi”? How often? Is one of you more likely to initiate that?
- Tell me about the apps, channels you use to connect with each other when you are separated. What do you like about them? What do you not like about them? Anything missing?
- What do you wish you could more easily communicate to your partner?

Feeling about downloading an app that is only about their relationship

How do you feel about having an app dedicated to just communicating with your romantic partner?
1. What would prompt you to give it a try in a relationship?

SETUP
- Status
- dscout

Diary Entry Prompts

Day 1. First Impressions

What are your first impressions of this app? To what extent do you find the look and feel of it appealing?
Please tell us what you liked about it after your first use?
Tell us what you did not like about it based on your first use of the app?

Day 2. Spotify and other Digital Content Sharing

What have you used the app for so far?
Have you connected it to your Spotify account? Have you shared your music with your partner?
How important is it for you to share your music with your partner?
What do you think about creating a shared playlist with your partner?
What else do you wish you could share digitally with your partner? What applications or ways do you use to share digital content with your partner?

Day 3. Features

Have you shared any pictures with your partner using the Photo Capture function – if yes, what did the pictures display? How did you like the sticker options?
`Which of the following features have you used so far? (list of features below the question)
Is there any of them that you don’t think you would use? Why not? If you think you would use all of them, which one has been your favorite so far? Which one has been your least favorite?

Day 4. App Appeal

Imagine that you are seeing this app outside of this study, in the Apple Store. What would prompt you to download it?
What would prompt you to suggest that your partner download the app, too, and start using it together?
Do you think you and your partner would use this app to the same extent?
What would prompt you to send a greeting card to your partner?
Do you and your partner agree on what features are cool in this app?

Day 5. Usage

What have you used the app for so far?
Have you chatted through the app? How did you like the experience?
Do you have any concerns about using the app to communicate with your partner?
While using Status, did you keep on using other platforms to communicate with your partner? If yes, which one(s)? How often?

Day 6. Room for Improvement

Please tell me about the last two days of activity you and your partner had on Status.
How often do you share your moods with your partner using Status?
How do you react to your partner’s mood communications?
What aspects of the app made you feel frustrated at any time in the last week?
Can you think of ideas that would make this app work better for you?

Day 7. Change in the Relationship

How do you think using this app has changed your relationship, if at all?
Do you communicate more/the same/less than before using this app?
How have the expectations about communicating with each other changed over the last week?
Do you expect your partner to contact you if your mood changes for the worse and you indicate that on Status?

Day 8. Sustained Use

Looking back, what functionalities of the app did you like the most? The least?
Do you plan on using Status after today when the study ends? Why (not)?
At what stage of the relationship do you think Status is really useful? In what stages would it not be helpful?
Would you want to use all the features? Some of the features? Which one(s)?

Post Diary IDIs– (60 mins)

Introduction (5 mins)

1.Summary of Diary Experience (8 mins)

Thank you for participating in the diary study
1. Expectations –
  1. What were you expecting the app was going to do for you?
  1. How did the app meet your expectations? Where did if fall short?
Functionality (20 mins)
1. What functionalities have you tried?
  1. How would you rate them (hand over a rating sheet with a list of functionalities)
  1. Please explain your rating
1. Tell me about your favorite functionality(ties) of the app. How often did you use it/them?
1. Were you on the same page in terms of what was cool about this app and what was not working for you?
1. Did you find any of the functionalities / tools frustrating? Tell me about a frustrating experience
1. Did you find any of the functionalities / tools delightful? Tell me about a delightful experience
Effect on communication (15 mins)
1. How did this app change your daily routine during these 8 days?
1. How about your communication habits? Did you communicate less/the same/more than you did before?
1. How did using the app affect how much you interacted or shared with friends, family on other platforms?
Relationship building
1. How did this app change your relationship?
1. Did you connect more often and share more content just because it was more convenient?
1. How did you feel about sharing your music list and creating a mix tape?
1. At what point in a relationship is this app the most appropriate and useful? Do you think this would work in a budding relationship? How about among partners who live together?
1. Are you planning to keep on using Status even after the study ended?
Thank you