I had been using my journal for a few months and I knew I had to test it with others if I was going to do something with it. I selected five of my friends and asked them to take part, initially I was nervous to ask them but they are all great people and were more then happy to help.
So the test was going to be over a two week period, during which I would check in with them but at the end ask the to answer a few short questions. I wouldn’t be asking for them back or anything and I made that clear from the start.
I had a hard time trying to create and select questions that would be easy to answer and encourage them to be honest, I settled on the following questions asked on a Survey Monkey form.
- Before being given this journal, when was the last time you tracked something or journaled on paper?
- Before this journal, when was the last time you reflected on your thoughts and decisions?
- What were you excited to try out in this journal?
- What one thing would you keep in this journal if the rest had to go?
- What one thing would you cut from the journal?
- What did you find the most confusing part of the journal?
- What would you like to see this journal?
- Who would you recommend this practice to?
When the first results came in I was disappointed as I didn’t really learn anything from them but when I group all the responses together it became clearer and I learned the following:
- All of the users track or write by hand certain elements of their lives
- Reflection is not something everyone routinely does or has a structure of doing
- Some users were excited to see the integration of physical and mental
- People didn’t really get the most important question bit without explanation
- Some of the recovery section could be cut
- The language used in some of the questions and the recovery section was the most confusing part for people
- Users want to be able to customise and have blank space, more focus on weekly goals
This was hopefully the first of many tests as I learned a lot from doing it and would change my approach in a few ways. Firstly I would use the Mom Test book to formulate better questions to get better feedback, and secondly I would change the medium in which I asked the questions as surveys are so bland and boring and a chore to fill out. The ideal collect would be in person whilst recording the conversation so nothing is missed.
Tús Maith Journals 