journaling practices
During fall 2024, I conducted formative research into journaling tools on paper as a graduate research assistant at Barnard College’s Design Tools Lab. With a team of HCI researchers, our goal was to investigate physical journaling practices to inform how digital tools could better support user personalization and documentation. These insights are currently being incorporated into custom tool prototypes of our own designs!
In order to discover user pain points with digital journaling and inform future designs for digital journaling tools, I conducted qualitative analyses with journaling content posts on YouTube and Instagram to understand journaling tool usage. I also led 1:1 interview studies with participants to learn about journaling routines and affinity diagrammed findings to distill key themes.
OUTPUT:Conditionally accepted to a human-computer interaction conference (C&C ‘25)!
TEAM: Juna Kawai-Yue, Katherine Lin, Adira Sklar, Lucy Hecht, Prof. Sarah Sterman, Prof. Tiffany Tseng (P.I.)
DURATION:September 2024-February 2025
SKILLS:Qualitative content analysis, interview studies and moderation, participant recruitment, study design, affinity diagramming
WHY JOURNALING?Journaling is a valuable reflective practice often used for improving mental health, as well as learning and personal development. It’s also popular in hobbyist craft communities in which creators (journalers) document thoughts and ideas in physical journals. Some journalers also use a wide variety of stationery goods (such as pens, washi tape, and stickers) to personalize their journals. Interestingly, many journalers select physical journaling methods instead of digital tools.
What can we learn from physical journaling practices that can inform how digital tools could better support user personalization and documentation?
WHAT DID WE DO?To address our research question, our formative study consisted of the following steps:
Conducted qualitative content analyses with YouTube videos and Instagram posts
Created a codebook of core themes gleaned from analyzing social media content
Led 1:1 semi-structured interviews with participants
Qualitatively analyzed interview transcripts and finalized our codebook
Developed our key insights based on our analyses
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT ANALYSISJournaling practices are multifaceted and differ from person to person, making it difficult to break down aspects of journaling routines.
We knew we had to understand the journaling community culture to know why people journal.
We firstly decided to analyze public journaling content on social media to 1) understand what tools journalers select and 2) how they use those tools on paper.
YouTube videos
We selected YouTube videos to focus on tool selection, since they’re fairly popular in the journaling community as videos of what writing instruments and journals people use. We:
1. Watched a total of 30 YouTube videos
2. Searched using queries such as “What’s in my pencil case” and “What’s in my pouch”
3. Applied open coding to the videos while taking note of depicted writing tools and why creators preferred those tools
4. Affinity diagrammed to categorize the codes
Instagram posts
We selected Instagram posts of journaling spreads to see how users applied writing instruments/stationery on paper. Instagram is highly visual—ideal for journal spreads. We:
1. Analyzed a total of 50 Instagram posts
2. Searched using hashtags such as “#journaling” and “#journalinginspo”
3. Annotated images while paying attention to the layout of the spread and decorative aspects and applied open coding
4. Affinity diagrammed to categorize the codes
Screenshots of YouTube videos analyzed for writing tools and accessories (clockwise from top left: @hellysjournal, @leighpadme, @KaitlinGrey, @KaitlinGrey, @miicchaa, @onjerraslist, @JobsJournal, @ErinFlotoDesigns)
Images from Instagram journaling spread posts analyzed for layouts (clockwise from top left: @totoroscafe, @k4rasu._, @ellensjournals, @_marshmallowstudio_, @5am.raining, @noteswithlu)
Themes from the codebook we developed from analyzing social media content, such as how users would prefer specific pens, employ specific page templates, or decorate their spreads, guided the creation of our interview guide…
INTERVIEWING PARTICIPANTSIn order to also understand user motivations for journaling, journaling routines, and other personal details we could not glean from public journaling content, we conducted eleven 1:1 semi-structured interviews. We asked participants to bring a journal they would feel comfortable sharing and their favorite journaling tools. Participants were:
All students, 18-25 at a large private university
9 female, 2 male
Recruited by flyers + email and were selected based on a balance of factors such as journaling practice, use of stationery, and digital journaling experience
Using paper journaling as their dominant journaling practice (with the exception of one, who had switched to digital journaling)
Interview structure and sample questions
01 General practices
“What does your journaling routine look like if you have one?”
02 Walking through an example journaling spread
“What guided your decision to make this spread?”
03 Journaling community
“Do you ever share your journals with other people, or are they meant just for yourself?”
04 Digital vs Physical
“How would you compare digital journaling to on-paper journaling, and do you have a preference between the two?”
We open coded transcripts and affinity diagrammed themes in order to consolidate our final codebook with themes from all data sources.
KEY FINDINGSThrough our analysis of public journaling content and interviews, we found a framework of themes describing how users partake in journaling practices. Here are some we discovered:
Materials - Stationery and Digital Tools
Physical constraints in journals (page/notebook size) could limit overwriting/negative venting.
Aesthetics enabled customization and motivated journaling practices; uplifting a journaling experience.
Digital tools such as Google Calendar eliminated the need for task and event tracking.
Journalers would often move beyond complex page templates to flexible, simpler templates.
Journaling was seen as a way to support reflection on one’s identity development, and as one’s environment changed, so did the nature of their journaling.
Journaling was seen as a tool to promote positive outlooks on life and improve mental health.
Personal Context
Interviewees spoke how the act of journaling together or sharing content in their journals could create moments of shared connection and resolve conflicts.
Interviewees also spoke about how they moved away from accessorizing commonly shown on social media.
Community
We also found some user pain points among participants who used digital journaling tools.
01 Editability detracted from freeform writing.
- Digital tools have the ability to easily erase or undo
- Encourages perfectionism instead of freeform writing
2/11 participants spoke about how ease of editing made them want to put too much effort into their content.
02 Lots of blank space felt overwhelming.
- Many digital tools use blank space as the “page”
- Abundance of blank space can create pressure to fill the page or “vent”
3/11 participants spoke about how having limited space instead prevented them from anxiety/ emotional venting on the page.
03 Digital tools were associated with work.
- Looking at a screen itself can remind participants of general work-related purposes
3/11 participants talked about how they preferred to be offline when they journaled, and needed separation from digital tools to relax.
Based on our framework of themes and user pain points, we derived the following insights which will guide our future designs of digital journaling/documentation tools.
Journaling tools should adapt to changing practices over time.
Tools shouldn’t necessarily prioritize strictly accurate documentation of one’s life. General-purpose notetaking applications tended to offer more flexibility.
Constraints typical for physical journaling are helpful for mindfulness.
Tools should encourage bounded space for writing (such as small notebooks and space constrained pages) and deemphasize “undoing.”
Digital tools were used more for remembering and listing daily events.
Digital journaling tools may help to surface important moments to write about, and could possibly align with physical journaling tools to extend journaling practices.
Journaling tools should allow users to be selective with how they share their journals.
Tools should allow sharing especially with select individuals or a small group of confidants.
FUTURE STEPSThe insights derived from our analysis of public journaling content and interviews will provide a framework for journaling practices. These are currently being incorporated into building custom design tools for documentation!
We’ll work on concepts for the tools by sketching storyboards and creating prototypes, and then utilize auto-ethnographies and diary studies with users to examine how they interact with our prototypes!