This includes pain points, which can in turn inform design decisions. For UX researchers, they help in a few key ways, outlined below. Why should you use an affinity map?Īffinity maps are a remarkably versatile tool, and can even be used individually to help sort through a sticky problem. Head back up to an earlier step if necessary to refine the results even further. Maybe categories need to be renamed, or conversation reveals a new prompt for brainstorming. As with any aspect of the design process, iteration can be useful. In other situations, consensus isn’t as appropriate, and you may just want to synthesize your findings to present to a broader team. If you’re attempting to create action items, this is a place where voting on next steps is a possibility. Perhaps you’ll find that many stakeholders are circling a central concept that should be discussed further. What patterns or themes emerge? What insights can you draw from your research data? You may uncover new user needs, design opportunities, or research gaps. Step back and look at your affinity map as a whole. Talk this through as a team, but don’t overthink it. Small groups may have enough similarities that they can be clustered together, and big groups can be broken up. Give each group a name or category that captures the ideas within it. Look for patterns and themes in your ideas. Once you have all of your ideas written down, start grouping them together based on their similarities. Normal brainstorming practices apply here, but encourage lots of ideas. Traditionally, each idea is written down on a sticky note or index card, although modern digital tools recreate this process for remote teams. You might be asking a wide field of users about their experience with a new layout configuration, or working with a small team of stakeholders to figure out next steps in a project. Next, you’ll want to collect insights from users or team members about the given topic or problem. This might be a user pain point, a design challenge, or a research question. Start by identifying the problem or topic you want to explore. Here are the steps to create an affinity map. Let’s start by diving into the process itself. For UX researchers, this process can help understand user needs, pain points, and preferences, which in turn can inform design decisions. The general idea is to group together similar ideas or concepts, which can help identify patterns, themes, and insights. While Kawakita’s use case was specific, the method has proven adaptable to a wide variety of problems, and is well-suited to digital and remote tools. The methodology went on to be adapted more broadly in Japan over the following decades, and became a cornerstone of design thinking and the emerging field of UX research in the ‘80s and ‘90s. (In fact, it was initially known as the “KJ method”, after his initials.) Looking at the vast array of ethnographic data he had collected, he realized that the spatial arrangement of the research provided meaning and context. Also known as affinity diagramming, it was first developed in the 1960s by Jiro Kawakita, a Japanese anthropologist, to study water supply challenges in Nepal. Affinity mapping is a visual technique used to organize ideas and data into meaningful clusters or categories.
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