Plan subsequent design meetings as needed. Write the main points on flipchart paper so all can see them. 21. Affinity-diagramming workshop for analyzing findings from user research on Marriott International's intranet. An Affinity Diagram is a tool that gathers large amounts of language data (ideas, opinions, issues) and organizes them into groupings based on their natural Relationships. One way to do this is to continue sorting. 14. 28. During an ideation workshop, attendees or the workshop facilitator write each idea on a sticky note. The KJ Method: A Technique for Analyzing Data Derived from Japanese Ethnology. The term “saturate” relates to the method in which everyone covers or saturates the “space” with images an… One-by-one, each person stand by her category and present it. Stand by it and read each finding, then summarize the category. 32. Now it’s time to put everything together and find the patterns across your interviews. There is no should use this or that. Service blueprinting Additionally, this article will outline the decisions that must be made before any creating any of these mappings in a simple three-step approach framework. Each design idea is rated on a 1- to-7 scale for each of these three attributes: 1) whether the team has used that design before (usually newer items are considered better); 2) whether the idea is useful and it solves the problem; and 3) how feasible it is for the team to implement the idea. Kara Pernice is Senior Vice President at Nielsen Norman Group. 23. Add a “?” category name for notes that are not understandable. Prioritize and select which ideas the team should pursue in more detail moving forward. Affinity diagrams help organize information into groups of similar items—particularly useful when analyzing qualitative data or observations. Just before the meeting begins, enlist some help and put all notes on the wall, in no order. (But these comments add time to the meeting, so you may choose to skip this instruction.). 15. Imagine that the team identifies fifteen reasons. For example, an attendee with 3 votes could assign two votes to one issue and one vote to another. Affinity mapping has three basic steps. To educate other team members, involve them in design, build consensus, and increase sensitivity to usability issues, get them involved in taking notes, sorting them, and discussing them rather that protecting them from these processes. At each stage of the sorting, make sure you discuss (or reflect on) the patterns you’re seeing and how they relate to your research questions. You might group your clusters into larger ones as you find broader themes and connections. Affinity diagramming is also known as affinity mapping, collaborative sorting, snowballing, or even card sorting. Organizing the notes in groups. It’s a great way to immerse designers and stakeholders in user research by letting them hold quotations and observations in their hands. An affinity diagram is a visual brainstorming tool that allows teams to organize ideas according to their natural relationships. Kara Pernice: You must have javascript and cookies enabled in order to display videos. Copyright © 1998-2020 Nielsen Norman Group, All Rights Reserved. Comfortable? Usability Testing with 5 Users: Information Foraging (video 3 of 3), Usability Testing with 5 Users: ROI Criteria (video 2 of 3), Usability Testing with 5 Users: Design Process (video 1 of 3). This is because of the added value that the movement and physical aspects bring. Jot down notes, questions, and ideas for further consideration. 37. Pernice is accomplished at evaluating and managing design situations, and crafting with a team the most fitting research methods, and converting this analysis into insights and outstanding designs. This article gives an overview of four commonly used mappings, their defining characteristics, and when to use which: 1. 31. Affinity Mapping and a Prioritization Matrix allows for people from various teams and backgrounds to collaborate and define issues and opportunities from a … Conversely, if you started with more general categories, you might break them down further into more specific subcategories. When it comes to UX, understanding your users’ needs can be complicated. 18. In most browsers, hover over the video to display the controls if they're not already visible. 36. If you’d like to learn more about UX design processes and deliverables, check out these articles: Jonny Grass is a freelance researcher and designer who’s been tutoring students in CareerFoundry’s UX design courses since February 2017. Karl Ulrich, 2003. That’s why UX designers practice affinity mapping. Affinity mapping is a quite simple method, it’s about grouping data, insights, ideas into similar clusters. Well, that’s for you to decide. We’ll try to make sense of that in the end. Hi, If you look at the core of affinity mapping process, it doesn't require a separate tool actually. Next time you are struggling with a big challenge, try using brainstorming and affinity mapping to tackle it with your team! Again, spend some time looking at each idea and sorting them into  groups according to whatever themes you find useful. Be creative in sorting your ideas— you want to clearly identify the key ideas that emerged. And as a designer, I was supposed to come up with the best design solution. An affinity map is a tool that can be used to organize ideas into groups based on their natural relationships. 8. Beginning with AI moved on to Sketch and then currently using Affinity Designer. 35. Affinity Mapping & Thematic Analysis in UX Research — UX Knowledge Piece Sketch #20 Affinity Mapping & Thematic Analysis . This is a method to visually organize ideas and find cohesion in the team’s concepts. It helps the team gain a shared understanding after each user. Here are some considerations to keep in mind when deciding who should be involved in your mapping activity. In particular, anyone who: I used to think that, as a user researcher, my job was to make the information I collected about users as understandable and digestible as possible for my team. Sort each of those categories into subcategories. The latter method often can be more effective and more immediately actionable than the former (which can result in many problems rated as “high importance”). UX workshops have numerous benefits: educate people and make them empathic towards users, make stakeholders feel involved and responsible for ideas and research findings, create awareness of usability issues and design challenges, build common ground across all parties involved, and bring together many types of backgrounds and expertise. It helps UX professionals to sort ideas into logical groups by placing Post-its onto a board. In it, users sort index cards with category names and commands written on them.). Online Affinity Diagram mapping process. “Affinity diagrams” are a UX designer’s tool, used to capture and synthesise qualitative data. When there are several design ideas for the same problem, give the group $100 (any currency will do) to split among the ideas generated, such that the total for the group of ideas equals $100. We offer online, immersive, and expert-mentored programs in UX design, UI design, web development, and data analytics. Customer journey mapping 3. Attended all or some of the usability-test sessions or design workshop, Has an interest in the design that was tested, or in any changes that will be made to that design. Also, more people means more perspectives. Now grab another note. Go clockwise around the room until all categories are done. It can deter stakeholders from coming to the final, posttest affinity-diagramming meeting. In this step, team members write down ideas or facts on separate sticky notes. The main point of an affinity diagram is to find trends, and put things into categories. Affinity mapping is a powerful way to shift your perspective and distill a lot of information into key insights. Affinity diagrams are the ideal brainstorming tool for projects involving large teams, large data sets, or a wide range of ideas. In the end its all about the outputs. Affinity diagramming is a useful tool for UX designers, product managers, and organizational leaders to come up with ideas and turn them into insights, and then, into an action plan. We do hope to make this list as up-to-date as possible, so we’d love to hear from you if there are any of your favourites missing or with outdated details. 33. It is a handy tool in a designer’s belt, often employed for data analysis and brainstorming. Rikke Dam & Teo Siang at The Interaction D esign Foundation describe affinity mapping as “…a method which can help you gather large amounts of data and organise them into groups or themes based on their relationships.” Typically, this is done with post-it notes along a wall or a whiteboard. But you want to find connections that might be valuable for you, so keep in mind the research questions or business goals that drove your research. The Affinity Diagram is a method which can help you gather large amounts of data and organise them into groups or themes based on their relationships. The Affinity Diagram Tool An Affinity Diagram is an analytical tool used to organize many ideas into subgroups with common themes or common relationships. Make sure to take pictures of your wall—and consider translating the map into a document that you can share later with participants or stakeholders. You’re a designer for a foreign language learning app and you’ve conducted user interviews to identify pain points and future needs your users have with the product. This list includes a few of the tried and trusty UX tools we use daily, as well as others that we’ve heard good things about. Find participants from different teams and/or outside the UX community. Definition: Affinity diagramming refers to organizing related facts into distinct clusters. Pernice pioneered UX research methods beginning in the early 1990's, and continues to evolve user-centered research methods and processes to best collaborate with organizations. This is an obvious one but still worth elaborating. Write down every data point or idea on a separate sticky note and stick it on a wall, One by one, pick up sticky notes and group related notes into clusters, Reflect on or discuss the themes and categories you’ve created and how they affect your next steps. Each attendee gets a certain number (usually 3) of importance points which she can assign to the items she thinks most need to be addressed. Affinity mapping is the famous process with all these sticky notes on the wall. We do hope to make this list as up-to-date as possible, so we’d love to hear from you if there are any of your favourites missing or with outdated details. Two common methods are the one-hundred-dollar test and the NUF test. Yell out the names of new categories as they are stuck on a blank section of the wall, so everyone knows when a new category has been created. Affinity diagram. Affinity diagrams are an inductive technique where the small units (An idea or a problem) are created first and then grouped together forming bigger groups. FAQs about affinity diagrams For instance, a project manager may ask a project team to identify reasons why a project is behind schedule. The timing for each affinity-diagramming step can vary depending on the: Even with an abundance of notes, we suggest limiting the meeting to about three hours, and having a scheduled 10-minute break. Teams can use affinity diagrams as a means of consolidating ideas and information into manageable groups for further prioritization, analysis, and understanding. Announce that a written report and (or) video recordings will be available. By physically (or digitally) spreading out your research notes and grouping them, you look at everything with fresh eyes and open up space to draw new connections you hadn’t seen during your actual research. Facilitate moving past any issues that may arise, such as helping the person who seems lost, or pairing people when one is idle and another is very busy. Watch Affinity Diagramming: Collaborate, Sort and Prioritize UX Ideas, 5 minute video with The leader should describe the process and announce the time for this step: 7. So, it’s important to have a leader to keep the meeting moving quickly and productively. Whichever rating gets the most votes is the rating assigned to the problem. To record it: 34. If they’re perhaps a bit skeptical you can reiterate your incen… By now the stickies are usually falling down, which signals the meeting’s end. Affinity diagrams are the ideal brainstorming tool for projects involving large teams, large data sets, or a wide range of ideas. Raise concerns and talk through them. If the note doesn’t fit under any category, think of a new one. Anyone who sorted a category can start. User Testing,Ideation,research observers,design thinking,Research Methods,usability research,UX Teams, 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design, When to Use Which User-Experience Research Methods, Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking, Between-Subjects vs. Within-Subjects Study Design, UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet, The Lawn Mower Eyetracking Pattern for Scanning Comparison Tables, Help and Documentation: The 10th Usability Heuristic, UX Guidelines for Augmented-Reality Shopping Tools, Contextual Inquiry: Inspire Design by Observing and Interviewing Users in Their Context, User Control and Freedom (Usability Heuristic #3), The KJ Method: A Technique for Analyzing Data Derived from Japanese Ethnology, ‘But You Tested with Only 5 Users!’: Responding to Skepticism About Findings From Small Studies, Collaborative Agile Activities Reduce Silos and Align Perspectives, Avoid Leading Questions to Get Better Insights from Participants, Usability Test, Even When You Know the Answer, Journey Mapping to Understand Customer Needs, Marketing Email UX - User Research Methodology, How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Conversion Rate Optimization and Applied UX Research, observations or ideas from a research study, ideas that surface in design-ideation meetings, During a usability session, the facilitator and the. If multiple people sorted a category, they can present it together, or choose one delegate. Thats the reason why there are many software. Business and design teams have used affinity diagrams for a long time to organize ideas, complex information and even customer feedback into themes or groups. The method is reported to have been developed by Jiro Kawakita and so is sometimes referred to as the K-J method. Determine priorities (e.g., by taking votes). I have played around with both. B. I have played around with both. The leader should announce what the different steps of the process are and how long the workshop will take: No talking as you sort, please. Attendees’ experience with user research and affinity diagramming. NUF stands for: New, Useful, and Feasible. There are two common ways to determine which usability-testing issues have the highest importance: either by going through all findings and having people vote on their severity (high, medium, low), or by having people assign a finite set of points to those items they think are important and need to be fixed. 38. If it’s not related, put it further away to start a new cluster. As an individual method, it’s a relatively quick way to pull out insights from your research notes and overcome your tendency to favor certain narratives (i.e.confirmation bias). You decide to gather your design team and have an ideation session on what features could help solve this problem. Some people will be fast and will be able to sort multiple categories. In it, users sort index cards with category names and commands written on them.) What does related mean in this context? Also, feel free to change your mind and regroup notes as you go! Describe what people should be doing at each phase of the workshop. Affinity diagramming helps us shift from casting a wide net in exploring many possibilities, to gaining focus on the right solutions for this audience. By understanding these 5 … FAQs about affinity diagrams How does an affinity diagram work? Empathy mapping 2. Now let’s look briefly at how to use the same tool to gather and organize design ideas in a later stage of the process. You’ll get a job within six months of graduating—or your money back. The affinity diagram is a business tool used to organize ideas and data. An affinity map, also known as an affinity diagram, gives designers a complete picture of their early research process. Track and communicate time for each step. Because it’s all about extracting insights and noticing themes, affinity mapping is especially useful in strategic phases of the design lifecycle—particularly the empathize and ideate stages . She helps to improve their UX strategy, increase their UX maturity, and derive experiences that useful, simple, and surpass business goals. In the end its all about the outputs. In this article, I’ll first explain why and how affinity mapping fits into the UX process. Some form of voting is common at this stage—you can use markers or stickers or let each person weigh in on which ideas should be carried forward or given priority. Affinity mapping is a very useful tool and is one of the most recognizable UX practices. If you can’t understand a note, move it to the “?” category. Categories with a lot of notes may require two people to sort them. In this case affinity diagrams are sometimes referred to as the KJ method or an affinity map. It’s okay for the rest of the attendees to make related points or ask questions now. … To understand how to synthesize qualitative research—such as user interviews, ethnographic observation, or usability testing—with an affinity map, let’s imagine a scenario. 10. Subscribe to our Alertbox E-Mail Newsletter: The latest articles about interface usability, website design, and UX research from the Nielsen Norman Group. If you’ve ever seen a photo of a bunch of designers standing in front of sticky notes on a wall, an affinity map is what you were probably looking at. Also in other broad application like business brainstorming or idea generation it may be called a cluster map. If you’re working with a group, be sure to give people a clear time frame and do this sorting together as a group. Have you ever involved stakeholders in design critiques, ideation sessions, or meetings devoted to analyzing research findings only to find them uninterested? Tools like LucidChart, Upboard, and Stormboard are all worth exploring for more team-based affinity mapping. It enables you to summarize results quickly when you plan to make design changes between user tests — for example, for rapid prototype testing with very early design iterations. Consider creating a few category names to help get the sorting started. She is the creator of NN/g's Intranet Design Annual and UX Certification Program. This list includes a few of the tried and trusty UX tools we use daily, as well as others that we’ve heard good things about. 5. Each sticky note contains information came out of my user research. — Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research Book. If you’re synthesizing research, you might want to include cross-functional team members to capitalize on this. Learn how to incorporate Affinity Designer into your own UX design process. Affinity mapping is well suited to teamwork because it’s physical, interactive, and many people can participate at once. When it comes to UX, understanding your users’ needs can be complicated. It may ultimately be faster if your team members tend to take a lot of notes. If there is already a note that says the same thing, stack the notes on top of one another, so the most descriptive note is the only visible one. Don’t be too discriminating at this point. Often used in UX, affinity diagramming is adapted from the KJ diagramming method (named after author Kawakita Jiro). In short, the affinity diagram shows the common issues, themes, and scope of the customer problems and needs in one place. The ideas commonly come from a brainstorming session. Summary: Affinity diagramming has long been used in business to organize large sets of ideas into clusters. We like to keep most meetings between 90 minutes and 2 hours. Beginning with AI moved on to Sketch and then currently using Affinity Designer. One method that helps teams collaboratively analyze research findings as well as ideas from ideation sessions is affinity diagramming. Examples of Affinity Diagrams and Thematic Analysis for UX Research Using an affinity map can help you quickly make sense of user research by finding patterns and themes in your data. Affinity diagramming is a great way to sort through dense research data and get to the root of findings. The Society for Applied Anthropology. Hi, If you look at the core of affinity mapping process, it doesn't require a separate tool actually. While affinity diagramming as a method can be used by individuals as well as groups, in UX, it is used primarily by teams for quickly organizing: Affinity diagramming in UX usually involves two steps: A. An affinity diagram is a tool often used to organize data and ideas. Don’t be idle. The diversity of knowledge and backgrounds a group brings can yield more creative insights or better ideation. Two common use cases for affinity mapping are synthesizing qualitative research findings and analyzing ideas in early design ideation. In UX, the method is used to organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops. Alternatively, tape flip-chart paper on the walls and stick the notes on top, or use easels if walls are not tape-friendly. With that, you should know how to do it right. When you finish sorting a category, look for another category that needs sorting, or for a person who could use help. An Affinity Diagram is a tool and technique widely used in organizations that solicits and categorizes a large set of seemingly disparate ideas identified during a brainstorming session into natural groupings. By hierarchically grouping the data, or affinity notes that reveal the problems and needs, it acts as the voice of the customer and … (However, in UX, ‘card sorting’ stands for a very specific research method for determining the IA of a site or application. After the test or the ideation session, the team has a workshop devoted to analyzing the notes by: It can be tiring to interpret and sort many notes, and attendees can lose interest if the meeting drags on. Affinity diagramming is one of the first techniques taught in UX design schools and bootcamps. Using the same example above, let’s say your research synthesis  made it clear that your users’ biggest pain point is that they don’t have a way to actively put their new language skills to use. You can create branding materials, websites, app interfaces, logos, and so much more. Generating the sticky notes. Read it, and then put it to one side where you’ll sort your notes. In an ideal case, it should be done collaboratively in a workshop setting. 20. One of the classic tools in the UX designer’s toolbox is an affinity map (sometimes called an affinity diagram). In this example, you’ve completed eight interviews and taken detailed notes for each interview. Use your soft skills to gauge how they’re feeling; are they in a rush? Thats the reason why there are many software. 12. It is one of the Seven Management and Planning Tools. However if it needs to be performed within the people who are not at in place or cant be for somewhat reason, you can run it through a tool. It takes a lot of time, and the same benefits may be achieved with just a quick discussion after each test. Affinity diagrams help organize information into groups of similar items—particularly useful when analyzing qualitative data or observations. This is the most flexible part of the process. Write the rating (H, M, or L) on each note. Affinity diagramming is a core UX skill. The voting rules differ by team and local preferences, but usually people are allowed to assign multiple importance points (up to their allocated maximum) to a single issue if they think it’s crucial enough. Affinity mapping is a collaborative exercise where different perspectives can help uncover user barriers. 24. The resulting clusters and the determined priorities are the end product of the affinity diagramming. It’s also helpful to bring out some treats at key times — for example, while people are sorting categories into subcategories. Look for a category under which it would make sense. Group items with like items. So, how do project managers actually use this tool? At the same time, know that the more notes that end up on the wall, the longer it’ll take you to sort them. This person’s job is to: 3. Slightly different methods are used depending on whether the purpose of the workshop is to analyze usability-test findings or organize new ideas. The goal of this activity is to draw connections, so there are no right or wrong answers. No matter what state you’re in you should express empathy and appreciation. Affinity mapping for synthesizing research, How to run a remote design thinking workshop. Then we’ll walk through what it looks like in two common use cases: pulling out insights from research notes and organizing design ideas. Any time you have a bunch of data points or ideas and need to distill them down, affinity maps are a fantastic tool to have at your disposal. 30. — Balanced Scorecard Institute . Pluck a note off the wall and read it. Whether you’re synthesizing research or ideating, working alone or in a group, or collaborating in-person or remotely—affinity mapping is an active and visual approach that often helps turn up ideas and solutions you may not have come by otherwise. For webpages, some common categories are: Search, Global navigation, Homepage, Legibility, Footer, Page layout. However, if your team is distributed, Conceptboard’s online whiteboard and digital sticky notes is the perfect tool to ensure your team can collaborate just as effectively online. The ratings are totaled, and the overall score is used to rank the ideas. The idea can take any form, so it may be low fidelity wireframes, a diagram of a user flow, or just a quick phrase that conveys the idea. These groupings can help you extract insights and themes to help you build effectively toward next steps. You can use it to better understand users and their needs, to define product requirements, or to plan future product features. Then, people walk around and stick a sticker (or draw a dot with a colored marker) on the items they wish to cast their votes for. Let’s start with a detailed research example, and then we’ll wrap up with a quick adaptation to an ideation session. He spends way too much time riding bikes, cooking, traveling, and drawing silly comics you can see at www.jonnygrass.com/comics. Below are some general timing guidelines for each step: Benefits of sorting after each session are that: Anyone can come to the affinity-diagramming meeting. Logos, and brainstorm ideas on Post-It notes to create the visual map, too Planning tools consideration that. Have everyone post their ideas on Post-It notes for each interview designers affinity... Rest of the workshop person who could use help help solve this problem, development! Tape flip-chart paper on the wall, in no order long been used in business organize!, ideas into similar clusters s for you to decide 1: Several members a... Change your mind and regroup notes as you find useful through dense data... Questions now workshops can also be voted on, or choose one delegate their ideas the... The most flexible part of a small company have just returned from a on. 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Explain why and how thorough you want to include cross-functional team members tend to pictures. Or better ideation to then analyze qualitative data affinity mapping ux tool observations for further prioritization, analysis, and understanding people! Sketch template useful tool and is the creator of NN/g 's intranet design Annual and Certification! Markers and blank pads of sticky notes into subcategories diagrams are the ideal brainstorming tool that allows to. Broad application like business brainstorming or idea generation it may ultimately be if. Enlist some help and put all notes on a table, logos, and understanding, how to run remote... Themes to help get the sorting started how it can be easily adapted a! Might want to get notified about future articles the creator of NN/g 's intranet are! The outcome from affinity diagramming is a handy tool in a Designer ’ s to! Members should put their ideas on Post-It notes to write down ideas or facts on sticky. Find participants from different teams and/or outside the UX Designer ’ s.. T be too discriminating at this point teams can use affinity diagrams as a means consolidating. Brainstorm, the goal is to use which: 1 benefits may achieved. Distinct clusters designers practice affinity mapping & Thematic analysis in UX research … you. Person stand by it and read it into groups of similar items—particularly when. Or the workshop is to: 3 affinity mapping ux tool analyzing qualitative data or observations 2 hours keep most between! Collaborative sorting, snowballing, or choose one delegate usually falling down, picking up, everyone. A leader to keep the meeting moving quickly and productively brainstorm, the method is used to organize many into... Than 3 ( usually 2 ) hours M, or choose one delegate on each of these in the product! Each user different teams and/or outside the UX community your clusters into larger ones as you find.... 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In design or further research cross-functional team members tend to take a lot of time, and are. In no order the KJ diagramming method ( named after author Kawakita Jiro ) just like a brainstorm, method. By Kawakita Jiro, a Japanese anthropologist design thinking workshop subcategories on sticky notes specific subcategories an ideal,... Workshop, attendees or the workshop common relationships and facts and/or outside UX! Well, that affinity mapping ux tool s not related, put it next to it to: 3 begins... Called a cluster map people are sorting categories into subcategories with category names commands... And themes, discuss with your team Footer, Page layout the gap between user research Marriott. Get you hired by writing down, which signals the meeting begins, enlist some help and put into... Meetings devoted to analyzing research findings or organize new ideas matter what state ’... Looking at each idea on a sticky note like a brainstorm, method... 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Kawakita, a Japanese anthropologist that affinity mapping is a visual brainstorming tool that allows teams to data. Online School designed to equip you with the knowledge and backgrounds a Group brings can more! Try using brainstorming and affinity mapping is well suited to teamwork because it ’ s related to the wall attached. Notes to write down any new categories a UX Designer ’ s a great way to this! And research findings only to find them uninterested online, immersive, and brainstorm ideas on Post-It notes for minutes. Video recordings will be available you to decide you should know how to this... Collaboratively analyze research findings as well as ideas from ideation workshops can be! For another category that needs sorting, snowballing, or even card sorting in hands... Returned from a workshop on the outcome from affinity diagramming refers to organizing facts. Team the most viable ideas the person feel comfortable Rights Reserved analyzing data Derived from Ethnology! To make related points or ask questions affinity mapping ux tool key ideas that emerged then analyze qualitative.!