The research conducted will identify many, many individual issues. Different stakeholders will have overlapping issues. Different design team members will notice/focus on certain things. An affinity map allows these to be grouped into themes for further work.
what is it
The Reseach Affinity Map is a visual map of the key issues that are identified during research and empathy building.
why is it important
Co-creating the affinity map is a way for everyone in the wider design team to contribute to the research whilst grouping their observations and insights into key themes. This helps build empathy and buy-in from participants and is a powerful tool to show wider stakeholders that individual issues are part of the bigger, wider picture that the design challenge is addressing.
how to do it
- Position the Research Affinity Map on a wall space where the team can gather around it.
- Start by individually reviewing the research activity and making post-it note observations of insights, problems, pain-points, perceived opportunities. At this stage, these are not solutions or ideas for solutions. Note each point on a separate post-it note with a marker pen writing just enough for others to understand. Individually share your post-it notes and place them on the context map within the respective sections, explaining each as you do so. Group and collect similar comments together and remove duplicates. Create a new subsection within each section if any are identified.
- Post all the teams post it notes on the Affinity Map, making them all visible
- As a group silently rearrange the post-it notes into groups, with notes that seem to be related together. You may move a note that someone else has rearranged if you think it is appropriate.
- Continue until everyone is satisfied with the groupings. The groupings identify the key themes that have been identified during your research. You may be left with lone post-it notes but that is usual.
- Label each of the themes with a different colour post-it and draw a line or box around the grouping to identify and separate its content from the other groupings.
- Share the themes with other stakeholders to test and gain feedback.
- Write any key questions or discussion points on post-it notes, one per note, and post them in a separate area for later reference.
Links for further reading
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