Methods to Put together and Use an Affinity Diagram
“Affinity diagrams” are a UX designer’s instrument, used to seize and synthesise qualitative information. This tutorial will take a look at preparation, recruitment, constructing an interview information, interviewing, extraction, and eventually synthesis! Moreover, I’ll clarify the right way to use your affinity diagram to create UX artefacts reminiscent of personas and buyer journey maps.
I may even intention to offer you an perception as to why it’s best to conduct these actions and what they will imply on your organisation and having a greater design course of. One that may make your choice making extra person centric!
Recruitment
Step one to getting ready an affinity diagram is recruitment! Get in contact along with your advertising group and supply them with a spec of the kind of individuals you may need to seize insights from. The advertising group might need a template helpful that can assist you articulate your wants.
Additionally, you will need to focus on the attain of any e-mail blast used, which can seemingly goal clients inside centralised places, reminiscent of a central enterprise district. In case your workplace isn’t positioned in a handy space attempt to organise one that’s! The simpler it’s on your customers to make it to the place on their lunch break and so forth, the extra seemingly you might be to get some prepared interviewees. Additionally be sure that to offer advertising ample time to organise the copy and e-mail.
Interview Information
Constructing an interview information helps when you recognize what you’re going to wish in your affinity diagram. For instance, mine are usually primarily based round biographical questions, frustrations, motivations, objectives, interactions and contact factors, so your questions ought to replicate this. It’s best to avoid capturing information that’s “resolution” oriented and get information that’s extra course of oriented. Your intention is to know how customers do no matter it’s that they do.
Interviewing
Once you interview, be sure to make the individual really feel snug. Use your mushy abilities to gauge how they’re feeling; are they in a rush? Snug? Maybe a bit cagey? It doesn’t matter what state you’re in it’s best to categorical empathy and appreciation. In the event that they’re maybe a bit skeptical you possibly can reiterate your incentive (e.g. $100 reward card). Nonetheless, in my expertise interviewees are usually fairly accommodating.
If you happen to ask a query and it raises extra questions just remember to probe additional into what they meant. It’s your job to be naturally inquisitive and draw out as a lot data as attainable. It’s outdoors of the scope to essentially take a look at this intimately, however I’d advise you steer clear from Sure/No responses. This can be a mixture of how your questions are framed and the way you work together along with your interviewee.
Extraction
In my expertise, it’s finest to document your whole interviews and re-listen to them as you switch the insights on to post-it notes. It’s because whenever you seize notes you usually write in a unique tense, or reword issues, to allow them to usually lose their that means. Begin every post-it word from the angle of the person, so “I…”
For every individual that you simply spoke with, select a unique color post-it word. For instance, for “Sam” I’ve used pink publish it notes, “Ray” yellow and “Kelvin” inexperienced. That is in order that at a excessive degree I can collectively see the completely different frustrations, motivations and interactions of every individual, however I may also see them collectively as a complete (i.e. issues the enterprise is having).
At this stage you’re not aiming to organise any of your qualitative information. You simply must record all of it out!
Synthesis
When you’ve completed capturing your insights onto post-it notes, you can begin to rearrange them into clusters that make sense to you! Within the instance under I’ve organised them into:
- biographical data
- frustrations
- interactions/contact factors
- objectives/motivations
Use classes that make sense to you. After you have finalised the completely different classes and groupings you may get a 3rd celebration to take a look and assist you reorganise. In my expertise, as soon as I’m going to the subsequent part of coming into this data into personas and buyer journey maps I discover that a few of these could make sense in another grouping or class.
Methods to Use an Affinity Diagram
Having created our affinity diagram, let’s see how we truly go about utilizing it.
Creating Personas
Creating personas utilizing affinity diagramming is good, since you’re utilizing “factual” qualitative information. You might be talking to an actual individual. Usually, what occurs is individuals in corporations that put on the “UX hat” will create a persona primarily based on inner information. They don’t have the drive (and infrequently the backing) to undergo a means of recruitment, interviewing, information extraction and synthesis. Likewise, with interviewing, the angle is “let’s do hallway usability testing”. This doesn’t actually offer you any solutions, as a result of a product is likely to be usable, however not efficient. For instance, a quote type may match effectively, however finish customers could not perceive why they’re doing it or the way it’s invaluable to them.
When crafting your personas. I exploit UXPressia. It’s at all times being up to date and, so far as I do know, is the one first rate instrument on-line for creating buyer journey maps. The personas are superb too, particularly the view that means that you can evaluate a number of personas side-by-side.
uxpressia.com
In my expertise, from the qualitative information captured above, probably the most related classes to incorporate are as follows:
- biographical data
- objectives/motivations
- frustrations
The fourth sort of information captured in your interviews can be utilized within the subsequent part (creating buyer journey maps, see under).
With the personas you can begin to get an concept of your precise customers and their wants. They solely get higher with extra analysis. So, after an preliminary spherical of interviews you possibly can undergo the method once more and revise the personas additional. These are then used at the side of your buyer journey map that can assist you make choices afterward within the design course of.
Creating Buyer Journey Maps
When you’ve created your persona utilizing the qualitative information from the affinity diagrams you’ll have began to problem a few of your earlier assumptions and hypotheses. Now it’s time to hone in on every particular person contact level.
In my expertise you possibly can hone in on one specific contact level or holistically work to enhance the entire journey. Nonetheless, within the context of affinity diagramming you should use the information you’ve captured to create a tough define. You may also use inner programs to flesh out extra of this element. For instance, for this undertaking I used a lead administration system to know every time a buyer was contacted by a marketing consultant and which platforms they used at every step (of the digital course of). Because it’s troublesome to inform what occurs throughout these non-digital contact factors, it might be a superb alternative to gear a few of your questions round that.
Conclusion
There’s quite a lot of inertia wanted when organising and enterprise this sort of person expertise exercise. The job can’t be finished half-heartedly. You have to undergo the trouble of recruitment, interviewing, listening again to the audio, extracting information, synthesising and creating UX artefacts.
As it may be troublesome to speak the worth, and there could also be a price to the organisation, I’d recommend doing it at the side of a person testing exercise.
When you develop into aware of the right way to put together and use an affinity diagram you’ll begin to see that it’s an extremely invaluable exercise for synthesising information. And when key stakeholders in your organisation begin to see the way it can work, will probably be a lot simpler so that you can repeat the method all year long.
