The UX Designer's Guide to Affinity Diagrams

Just likeElle Woods在 ”Legally Blonde，“用户体验（UX）设计师需要为他们的工作进行大量研究。

For those who haven't seen the Reese Witherspoon classic, Elle Woods studies, researches, and works hard to get into Harvard Law School and become a lawyer. Even though Elle has no legal background, she was determined to overcome any obstacles and become a subject-matter expert. UX designers have this same mentality when mapping out their target users.

根据Econsultancy的最新report, 88% of companies who outperform in customer experience believe customer mapping had a positive impact on their ability to deliver a personalized interaction. Additionally, 87% of companies said customer mapping helps them identify gaps between what customers want and what they're getting.

今天，我们将讨论亲和力图，这是一种映射方法，可帮助您的设计师了解客户并提供更好的用户体验。

Below, let's review what an affinity diagram is and how its mapping can assist your UX design team.

Your diagram can include information like data, facts, customer interviews, user insights, and design issues. Additionally, an affinity diagram helps you organize and group information into categories so you can quickly make sense of the data.

通常，亲和力图被用作头脑风暴练习，或者作为团队分析大型数据集。在搜索小组共识，提出大问题或周围有很多想法时，UX设计师可能会使用亲和力图。如果您正在研究一个似乎混乱的项目，那么亲和力图可以帮助创建，设计和合并信息。

So, how is an affinity diagram created? Before you can get started, let's learn about the process below.

To begin the mapping process, you'll want to write out ideas and information on movable blocks, like sticky notes. Then, you'll separate a large space, such as a wall or dry erase board, into categories. Lastly, you'll organize your sticky notes into each category.

通过浏览亲和力映射过程，您将发现研究中的趋势，了解有关客户的更多信息，并集思广益，以使用户体验更好。

在开始使用亲和力图之前，让我们在下面查看一些最佳实践。

Affinity Diagram Best Practices

1. Assign a moderator.

These meetings can run long if you don't keep track of time. Plus, some team members might end up monopolizing the conversation with new ideas. The moderator should make sure everyone is contributing and keep track of time so the meeting doesn't last too long.

2. Designate a scribe.

Delegating a scribe can help you keep track of the best ideas. Writing on hundreds of sticky notes then organizing them can be overwhelming. So, a scribe will make sure you don't lose track of the most important information.

3. Summarize your findings.

在会议结束时,总结你的发现for each category. Figure out what your top conclusions were and the solutions you brainstormed during the session. This will help you quickly derive value from your meeting.

4. Put it online.

If you don't want to lose track of the affinity diagram, you can make one online. You can use flow charts or software likeLucidchartto draw out your diagram. Visualization tools make it easy to monitor your research after having an hour-long diagram session.

Now that we've covered the affinity diagram process, let's see what this looks like in action.

Affinity Diagram Examples

1. New Ideas Affinity Diagram

来源：Uxdict.io

In the image above, a UX team brainstormed ideas about community collaboration. As you can see, community collaboration is just one of the categories that they were discussing. That category was then dissected into three subcategories including users, contributors, and evaluation.

在此示例中，UX团队还使用投票贴纸来为每个人评分图中的最佳想法。通过使用亲和力图，该团队能够为UX设计团队收集他们的想法，以改善客户的旅程。

2. Customer Journey Affinity Diagram

来源：Dribbble

与第一个示例不同，该示例专注于customer journey. With an affinity diagram like this, the UX team can consolidate research learned from customer interviews and user insights. Learning about the pain points and motivations of your customers will help your UX team brainstorm new ideas to help users in their journey.

在本例中,您可以看到用户体验团队分开their research into three categories including hopes, fears, and ideas. These categories help the team understand its target market on a deeper level. Plus, the UX team can see hopes, fears, and ideas at a glance, which makes it easier to brainstorm solutions.

3. Organizational Affinity Diagram

来源：Study.com

All in all, affinity diagrams are used to organize and gather information. In this example, you can see everything you need to know about purchasing camping gear. This diagram reviews key factors to keep in mind including fabric, set-up, sleeping room, and cosmetic elements like color and zipper.

This diagram gets to the heart of what an affinity diagram is for: keeping information organized so you can see data at a glance when you're trying to brainstorm solutions. It also features several subcategories to keep data organized.

While looking at examples is helpful, you might still have questions about how to create an affinity diagram. Let's review some templates to get you started.

Affinity Diagram Template

1. Hierarchical Affinity Diagram

来源：Wikipedia

In this template, the affinity diagram is organized by hierarchy. With this structure, you can create as many categories and subcategories as you need.

If you use this type of affinity diagram, make sure that you let the categories form themselves naturally. Don't limit yourself with preset categories and subcategories. Those categories should make themselves apparent as you start grouping information.

2. Color-Coded Affinity Diagram

来源：UX Planet

In this template, UX Planet organizes its affinity diagram by color-coding. It suggests using several-color sticky notes to arrange your ideas.

You could assign a color for stats, user interviews, and ideas. Or, you label your hierarchy affinity diagram with colors for each category. The subcategories could be one color while the categories underneath are a different one.

Whatever you choose, color coding your affinity diagram can be helpful when you're organizing your research.

3. Blocks Affinity Diagram

来源：Miro

This template organizes information in blocks, starting with high-level ideas and narrowing them down to more in-depth notes.

You can organize your ideas by stats, product ideas, profitability, customization, or customer satisfaction. This helps you brainstorm new ideas while also keeping in mind ROI and the customer journey.

UX designers must conduct extensive research from user interviews tousability testing. Once that research is complete, using an affinity diagram can help gather all the data you need to brainstorm new ideas that'll improve your customer's journey.

Want to learn more about user testing?Check out our ultimate guide.