Affinity Diagram

Affinity Diagramming Concepts from analysis

This document contains 3 concepts based on an affinity diagram of contextual inquiry data and analysis of the affinity diagram.

Key points: Affinity diagramming, data analysis, grouping, concept ideation, furniture, temporary living

This document was created by Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Summary of Insights Food for Thought

Major Insights The users who are temporary residents may have a requirement of moving out/ in frequently so that their home supplies should be: 1. multifunctional 2. require no additional space 3. easy for reselling.

Home artifacts should also play a role for facilitating people’s work, especially for the students and youth who rent a house/ apartment under different situations.

Researcher Notes The number of insights isn’t necessarily proportional to the number of data points one has.

When studying some one who leads a relatively “uncomplicated” life, a limited number of data points can hinder concept ideation.

Minor Insights Established norms or rules does not ensure that these are followed.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Critique of Technique Affinity Diagramming as Data Analysis

What Works 1. Many observations (>100) can be organized and categorized.

2. When the problem or the space being explored is very complex and instead if the problem space is relative simple and the obsevation is easy to understand and describe, it might not be proper for this method.

3. It is difficult to obtain a clear understanding of the whole problem and situation due to the disorganized and complicated subproblems. In this case, you may want to combine some of the observations or separate them and recombine them into different categories.

4. Trying to find connections (discover previously unseen connections between various ideas or information) and work from detailed information to broad themes/categories (try to summarize, draw out common themes from a large amount of information) 5. Work in a team and try to sort your ideas and findings by combining the

similar ones and classifying different ones and at the same time generate a series of logic categories for all your ideas and findings.

Researcher Notes It is best to do conduct an affinity diagram when a proper amount of time can be dedicated to developing the data points and analysing the data.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Critique of Technique Affinity Diagramming as Data Analysis (Con’t.)

What Doesn’t Work 1. When our group was doing the affinity diagram, in trying to classify different observations we found out that our observations are all very consistent.

Most of them are focused on the make up process and intersect with other processes. In these terms, when the observations have close connections with each other, it is difficult to categorize them.

2. An affinity diagram does not take into account the subjects views on the observations. In this respect, it has a heavy researcher bias.

3. If your a team has a large sum of information from a field study and tries to list out all the information by individual (usually it will take several hours to do this), it requires a lot of time. In addition, each person on the team will do duplicate work, which makes these data points difficult to categorize.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Generation of Insights How does an affinity diagram affect insight generation?

Help Logical connections can be made between seemingly disparate observations. These connections can inform researchers on the tendencies of the subject or commonalities within the space they are researching.

An affinity diagram can reveal and define the most major categories of interest. The diagram supports these categories with a collection of observations.

Hurt An affinity diagram, again, has a researcher bias. The subject’s connections between data points will be different from the researcher’s if not enough context is established. This does not only affect one data point, but, ostensibly, the entire affinity diagram and any pursuant data analysis.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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iMirror Concept 1

Mino is 24 and has just graduated from the Kelly School. Now she is employed doing data analysis work at Accenture in Phoenix. Since Accenture is a professional company, every day Mino gets up early in the morning to apply make up. Recently, she received a gift from her mother, an iMirror.

photographs her eye, (H) finding the proper makeup for her. Also, iMirror can save different capture items. For example, she can set up to capture mascara, lipstick and powder puff.

Unlike a common mirror for appyling make up, there is (A, B) a small button on the mirror bracket. When iMirror is off, (C) it acts like common mirror. (D) When it’s on, it can capture your finger and zoom in the 10cm2 area around the finger.

Mino is very careful when applying make up to her eyes, especially when using mascara. (E) So, she sets up the capture function for the mascara. She puts the mascara in front of the mirror and draws a circle along the edge of the area that she wants to capture and zoom in. (F) When she is using the mascara, it automatically identifies the capture item and zooms in.

(G) Mino finds the effect is not so great, so she double clicks the iMirror and it

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Pet Care System Concept 2

Mino worked hard and soon she was relocated to New York. She rented a house with another girl. As her living place got smaller, she gave up the thought of buying a making-up table and thus she must use her dressing mirror as the mirror to apply make up. However, there is a kind of dressing mirror called e-mirror very popular among young people that piqued Mino’s interest.

the clothes she wore today to her mother to see if she had a better suggestion.

(D) Mino clapped her hands to capture a picture and after a few seconds, e-mirror captured a photo (F) to send to her mother.

She found the e-mirror very useful.

Although her small bedroom, which was between two tall buildings was dim, she did not need to worry about the light.

(A) When she wants to change the light effects, she raises her hand. (B) Similarly, she could put herself into different environment such as conference hall, meeting room, shopping store or even pubs and bars by waving her hands. (C) Checking her makeup is also easy for Mino as she no longer needs a making up mirror. Instead, she stretches her arms to zoom in. “Oh, that’s really fabulous to play with,” Mino thought that she should send

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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Cosmetic Bag Concept 3

Mino loves make up. One of her hobbies has become collecting cosmetics of which she has collected a lot. But as she has mentioned, she has little space for a make up table. She only owns a cloth box to put all her cosmetics and they have piled up.

Every time it was so difficult to find what she wanted. Her roommate heard about Mino’s problem and she lent her cosmetic bag to try.

Mino puts her cosmetics into the bag and she finds out that the top of the bag is actually a screen for her to search what she wants from inside the bag. She input the word Bobbie Brown Concealer.

A red circle emerges on the screen.

She rummages around the cosmetics according to the position prompt and finds the concealer.

Jeffrey Gadzala and Tianjie Li | Affinity Diagram | Methods 2014

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