← projects

diary study 2026

dinner diaries

individual project, ux research

ux research qualitative analysis quantitative analysis data visualization diary study

researcher & analyst 19 participants · 87 entries · 8 days njit is375 · may 2026

a week-long diary study on dinner, inspired by r/kitchencels and r/girldinnerdiaries, communities where people post photos of whatever they ended up eating, sometimes intentional, sometimes just whatever the day left them with. i wanted to know if that pattern held up outside of reddit: does the quality of someone's day show up on their plate?

method

19 participants logged dinner daily over 8 days through jotform: a photo, a short description of their day and meal, who made it, and two 1–5 ratings, one for the day, one for the food. not anonymous, on purpose, so i could compare each person against themselves across the week.

key findings

01 day and food ratings track together, but loosely.

of the days rated a 5, 22 of 26 also had a 5-rated meal. almost no one had an average day and a great meal, or vice versa.

across the dataset, the range was wide: one entry was a 2/5 day capped with a wrong Wendy's order at 12am, rated a 1/5 meal. another was a 5/5 day (cold brew, a walk, a movie, a steakhouse date) that ended in a 5/5 meal. same study, same week, completely different lives.

02 who made the food mattered more than expected.

family-cooked meals rated highest (4.89), dining hall lowest (2.67), and self-cooked barely beat pre-packaged.

the "who" behind the meal seemed to carry as much weight as the food itself.

03 most people didn't really have a "week" of ups and downs.

they had one baseline mood that mostly held, with only one participant showing real day-to-day swing.

that complicated the original premise: comparing a "good day meal" to a "bad day meal" assumes people have both in a short window, and most didn't.

what i'd change

ask demographic questions on day one, not the last day, people were burning out by the end. standardize the entry form more. and if i had more time, i'd run a card sort matching ratings back to food photos, to see how much the meal itself actually signals.

dinner diaries · may 2026