Methods: Affinity diagramming

Summary

Affinity diagramming is used to sort large amounts of data into logical groups. Existing items and/or new items identified by individuals are written on sticky notes which are sorted into categories as a workshop activity. Affinity diagramming can be used to:

analyse findings from field studies
identify and group user functions as part of design
analyse findings from a usability evaluation

Benefits

Affinity diagramming is a simple and cost effective technique for soliciting ideas from a group and obtaining consensus on how information should be structured.

Method

Planning

Arrange a meeting of participants with the relevant expertise that will last one to two hours.
Write any existing items on sticky notes.
Use a room where you can fix flip chart paper to the wall using Blue Tack.

At the meeting

Explain the problem to the participants, and if appropriate allow participants to create their own items as a brainstorming activity.
Ask participants to stick the notes on the flip chart paper, close to any other notes on a similar topic.
If designing, include users as participants, and group items from a user perspective.
Once consensus has been reached on the grouping, use a different coloured sticky note to name each group .

Output

Items clustered by topic.

More information

Affinity diagramming to analyse usability issues.

Affinity diagramming for brainstorming.

Variations

For pre-existing items, affinity diagramming is an alternative to card sorting. Card sorting finds common patterns in the way different people group information, while affinity diagramming obtains a consensus result.

Case studies

Background reading

Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. (1998) Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers ISBN 1-55860-411-1