What technique involves students or users documenting their experiences over a period?

The technique that involves students or users documenting their experiences over a period is user diaries. This method allows individuals to record their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to a specific product or experience in real time. By maintaining a diary, users can provide detailed insights into their interactions and reflections over time, which can be invaluable for understanding usage patterns, identifying pain points, and capturing the emotional journey of the user.

User diaries often yield rich qualitative data that can enhance the design process by highlighting genuine user experiences and preferences. This differs from surveys, which typically capture one-time responses and may lack depth, and from focus groups, where participants discuss their experiences in a group setting but may not reflect on a prolonged personal experience. Culture probes, while they involve collecting user data, typically use a combination of artifacts and stimuli to elicit responses rather than direct documentation by the user over time. Thus, user diaries provide a unique and effective approach for gaining insights into ongoing user experiences.