Video summary

Affinity Diagramming: Collaborate, Sort and Prioritize UX Ideas

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main Ideas, Concepts, and Lessons

  • Affinity diagramming is a collaborative method to organize related facts into distinct clusters.
  • It helps teams distill and prioritize findings from:
    • User research
    • UX/strategy/design workshops
  • The approach uses sticky notes and a structured workflow that moves from:
    1. Idea capture
    2. Clustering
    3. Categorization
    4. Prioritization
    5. Alignment on next steps
  • A key takeaway: involving the whole team (not just UX specialists) helps people:
    • understand users
    • design better
    • increase investment
    • build consensus
    • create shared understanding

Method / Step-by-Step Instructions (Detailed)

Preparation / Setup

  • Choose a wall where sticky notes can be placed.
    • If walls aren’t available, use flipchart paper as a sticky-note surface.
  • Post all notes on the wall to make the meeting move faster.
  • Optionally, place subcategory starter labels in different areas of the room to begin sorting.
  • Create a “Question mark” / “Parking lot” category for notes that aren’t understandable.
  • Provide materials:
    • Pens and markers
    • Blank sticky notes/pads

Roles and Timeboxing

  • At the start, the leader should:
    • Explain the process
    • Set time limits for each phase
    • Call out times to keep progress moving

Step 1: Generate Ideas / Capture Observations

  • Attendees/observers write:
    • Each observation or idea on a separate sticky note
  • If notes don’t fit an existing category:
    • Create a new category by writing a topic name on a post-it
    • Stick it on the wall in an open area

Step 2: Organize Notes into Categories and Subcategories

  • In the first sorting phase:
    • Attendees work quietly and sort notes into categories
  • If the input comes from a usability test:
    • Each color represents a different user (to ensure correct interpretation)
  • If the same finding appears multiple times:
    • Stack identical/duplicate notes
    • Keep the most descriptive version on top
  • After initial categories are formed, leaders direct the team to:
    • Use additional blank sticky notes to write subcategory names
    • Place subcategory labels to refine grouping further
  • Workflow guidance:
    • If a category is completed but others remain, move to another category
    • If someone is still working on a category while you’re finished, go help so everyone keeps sorting until all notes are categorized

Step 3: Present Categories and Discuss

  • People present each category.
  • The discussion is emphasized because it helps foster shared understanding of the findings/ideas.

Step 4: Prioritize Findings or Ideas

  • Prioritization is used to determine where the team should focus next.
  • Multiple prioritization methods are acceptable; examples include:
    • Vote by importance (high/medium/low)
      • Participants raise hands for items they consider high, medium, or low importance
    • Dot voting
      • Each person gets 3 dots
      • People allocate dots to the most important findings
    • Budget-based scoring (good for UX strategy / ideation workshop outputs)
      • Assign a monetary value to each idea from a stated budget
    • 1–7 importance rating
      • Rate items on a scale of 1 to 7

Step 5: Close the Meeting with Communication and Next Actions

  • Teams may:
    • Write themes on whiteboards
    • Take photos of the wall
    • Track everything in a spreadsheet
  • Key requirement:
    • Summarize and communicate what will happen next
    • Suggest/assign action items so the team uses the information to drive design

Main Lesson / Perspective Shared by the Speaker

  • The speaker emphasizes that teams benefit when UX-related “messy” work isn’t isolated to UX professionals.
  • Insulating non-UX team members reduces their learning and engagement.
  • In contrast, involving people using methods like affinity diagramming:
    • improves understanding of users and good design
    • builds consensus
    • creates shared understanding

Speakers / Sources Featured

  • Primary speaker (unnamed): The video narrator (first-person “I used to…” / “I learned…”) explains the method and lessons.

Original video