1. Mostly Affinity Diagramming and Card Sorting

2. Understanding the Problem Space! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
There can be a lot of problems to solve in a space, how do we attack them to design a solution? ! ! ! !
Problems of Target Users

3. Understanding the Problem Space! ! !
Are there consistent themes?
Are there common groupings? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
There can be a lot of problems to solve in a space, how do we attack them to design a solution? ! ! ! !
Problems of Target Users

4. Understanding the Problem Space! ! !
Are there consistent themes?
Are there common groupings? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
There can be a lot of problems to solve in a space, how do we attack them to design a solution? ! ! ! !
Problems of Target Users

5. ! Why not Tasks First? User Task Problem to Solve
Task Describing Problem
Reasonable interviewing produces many problems, often scattered and contradictory
Pare down, let themes emerge
Themes can be focal point, provide direction

6. Affinity Diagramming
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7. Affinity Diagramming
Team-based method for organizing facts into related themes
Observed facts are data for making decisions
Team reduces potential bias of your intuition
“Shows in once place the common issues, themes, and scope of the customers problems and needs”

8. Affinity Diagramming Uses
Typically most useful organizing preliminary information and brainstorming ideas
Also used to identify how users organize data in an information space

9. Affinity Diagramming in Practice
Build notes into columns based on observational relationships
Eventually label columns into groups
There is no “right” affinity
Anyone can move a note, no ownership
Some groups impose silence rule

10. Process
Generate Ideas - capture facts from our interviews; go for at least 20 facts from each interview.
Display Ideas – Get together with others; lay out all of the facts.
Sort them into groups – find two related ideas, put them together, look for others. Repeat. Anyone can move something if they disagree.
Create header cards that summarize the idea captured by each group.

11. Pulling Out Facts
We talk to our daughters usually weekly. This past weekend, we did a video chat with one. We like to watch our grandson. He’s just started walking. He’s still little enough that every time we see him (on video chat) he’s doing something new. We talked with the other daughter on her cell phone while she was running errands. We also got a few pictures of the two grandkids. I just visited one of my sisters a couple of weeks ago so we haven’t talked but usually we talk or every few weeks. Its harder to stay in touch with them. We talk to one of my husband’s sisters via phone every month or so. I’m not sure whether we did this past month or not.
Weekly interaction with immediate family (daughters)
Use combination of methods for different purposes (video, phone, , photos all mentioned)
Video is useful when communication skill is a concern (young children)
Opportunistic communication happens (e.g. phone chats when running errands)
Receive a few photos each week
Two tiered family communication – weekly with immediate, monthly with adult siblings
Communicate with adult siblings via phone or

12. Discussion What are the important themes?
Where can you see believable roles for a new technology?
What do the interviews suggest are the biggest problems?
if there's more time you can ask them to start envisioning a specific technology that addresses some part of the interview data

13. Question
In the previous class, we discussed how the Asch Paradigm introduces a very strong bias in focus groups. Affinity diagramming is also a group activity and it is focused on consensus. Is the Asch conformity bias not a concern? If it is, how is it addressed/handled?

14. Card Sorting
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15. Card Sorting
Method to identify latent structure in ideas by having users sort statements into groups of their choosing
Can also have set groups
How users want information organized, how they expect it to be organized

16. Card Sorting Utility
Need to know how to best organize a lot of (known) information.
Choosing menu headings and items for website navigation
Important information is
The groups/clusters people create
WHY