Method guide · Work with a structured grid
Diary Prompt Co-design Workshop
Design diary prompts and accessible formats with young people, with consent, resources, data handling, and safeguarding in place first.
- People
- 4–20
- Base procedure time
- 75 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Explore through dialogue; Generate ideas.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method for designing prompts and formats with young people for recording experiences. Each person chooses paper, audio, video, or drawings and tests a prompt answerable in one response. Briefly test audio/video at a place, framing, and time without third parties; if third parties cannot be kept out, switch to paper or drawings. Decide regular check-ins, pauses, and organisational provision of equipment, connectivity, and materials. Explain consent, post-withdrawal handling, payment, safeguarding lead and backup, and data collection, access, publication, storage, and deletion beforehand; separate harm and similar concerns from routine analysis. The result is a prompt sheet supporting multiple formats, a support plan, and a deadline for returning results. Adults hold final responsibility for safety and data management. This description is an original adaptation with changes to UK government guidance under OGL 3.0. Do not use it for research generalising to all young people.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Design safe consent, data, and resources0–10 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Safeguard. Participation: Everyone with the safeguarding lead and backup.
Shared record
- Choose a usable recording format10–25 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Individually or in groups of 3–5.
Shared record
- Design a concrete single-response prompt25–40 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Design. Participation: Groups of 3–5.
Shared record
- Test burden and ambiguity in another format40–55 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Test. Participation: Groups of 3–5.
Shared record
- Confirm check-ins, support, and trial date55–75 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Confirm. Participation: Everyone with the adult implementation lead.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 10 minutes, check consent, post-withdrawal handling, payment, safeguarding lead and backup, and data handling.
- For 15 minutes, choose the medium and necessary support; test audio/video beforehand at a place, framing, and time without third parties.
- For 15 minutes, make concrete recording prompts aligned with the purpose and answerable in one response, excluding third-party information.
- For 15 minutes, briefly test before recording/filming and check with the person for third-party appearances or voices, burden, and ambiguity.
- For 10 minutes, decide regular check-ins, pauses, medium changes, contacts for difficulties, and procedures for separating concerns from routine analysis.
- For 10 minutes, establish organisational provision of equipment, connectivity, and materials, the adult implementation lead, trial date, and deadline for returning results.
If something changes
If
Before starting, any of the safeguarding lead and backup, data-management lead, emergency advice route, or necessary equipment/connectivity/materials is unavailable.
Then
Do not ask young people to record; cancel, and have only the organisation confirm responsibilities, resources, and a rescheduled date.
If
Even one person indicates withdrawing consent, not recording, changing medium, not sharing, or leaving.
Then
Without asking why, stop recording and use. Return, delete, or anonymise existing records according to the person's choice and stop using them. Do not reduce payment or participation opportunities.
If
An audio/video pre-test includes third parties' images or voices, safe conditions cannot be ensured, or third parties are unintentionally included during actual recording.
Then
Before actual recording, do not proceed; switch to paper, drawings, or another medium and retest. During actual recording, stop immediately and delete without saving or sharing it. Only if the person wants, recheck safety and record again or change medium.
Preparation
Materials
- One set of recording-format cards per person
- One prompt/non-recording/third-party-information sheet per group
- One guide per person covering consent, post-withdrawal handling, payment, safeguarding lead, and backup
- One whole-group checklist for data collection, access, storage, and deletion
- One whole-group list of equipment, connectivity, and materials support
- One thick pen per person
Room and setup
- Display the safeguarding lead and backup, contact on the day, emergency procedure, individual advice contact, and data-management lead; cancel if even one is missing.
- Explain plainly consent suited to age and circumstances, necessary guardian and organisational procedures, withdrawal, no disadvantage for non-participation, payment conditions, and post-withdrawal choices to return, delete, or anonymise existing records and stop their use.
- Minimise collection and define its purpose, viewers, publication, secondary use, storage location/period, and deletion date beforehand. Prioritise methods not recording the participant's or third parties' personal information, and do not generalise to all young people's experiences.
- For audio/video, choose a place, framing, and time without third parties with the participant and briefly test before recording or filming. If appearances or voices cannot be excluded, switch to paper, drawings, or audio without third-party voices.
- Provide equivalent paper, audio, video, and drawing alternatives and necessary equipment, connectivity, and materials at the organisation's expense. Young people choose items not to record, medium, and sharing scope; adults hold final responsibility for safety and data management.
Adjust for people and time
Use one group for 4–5 people, two groups of 3–5 for 6–10, three groups of 3–5 for 11–15, and four groups of 4–5 for 16–20, differing in size by no more than 1 person. Each group tests the same prompt in two formats; do not standardise the formats individuals choose in the whole group. With 21 or more, use separate sessions, each with a safeguarding lead, backup, and data-management lead.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Cancel if safeguarding, backup, data lead, emergency routes, or required resources are missing. Respect withdrawal, non-recording, medium/sharing choices, and leaving without asking why or reducing payment/opportunities. Stop use and handle existing records by the person's choice. Keep third parties out of recordings; if unintentionally recorded, stop and delete without saving/sharing, and retry only if the person wants after safety is rechecked. Minimise data, define access/publication/secondary use/storage/deletion beforehand, retain adult responsibility, and do not generalise to all young people.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- GOV.UK Methods for engaging young people: User diaries
Adaptation under OGL-3.0; changes made
- Conditions of OGL-3.0
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
OGL-3.0
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the UK government publication identified below. Any separately stated terms apply to the material they identify.
Changes: timings, instructions, materials and branches have been edited for this site. The English edition translates the Japanese manuscript, not the government text verbatim.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
This notice does not grant blanket rights to third-party works, personal data, organisational logos or trademarks.
This is not an official or government-endorsed method.
See the licence for its no-warranty and other terms.
© Crown copyright 2026
Credits on the checked source page
- Published by: Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Methods for engaging young people.
Source lineage
Open Government Licence v3.0 · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.