Design Thinking Methods: Affinity Mapping

Traditional design methods struggle when dealing with complex or chaotic problems or with large amounts of data. The affinity diagram organizes a large quantity of information by natural relationships. This method taps a team’s analytical thinking as well as creativity and intuition. It was invented in the 1960's by Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita and is sometimes referred to as the KJ Method.

For around 50 years affinity diagrams have been an essential pillar of what is known as the Seven Management and Planning Tools, used in Japan. The seven management and planning tools are used in leading global organizations for making and implementing better team decisions.

Use an affinity diagram to:

1. Understand what is most important from ambiguous data
2. Tame complexity
3. Identify connections in data
4. Create hierarchies
5. Identifying themes
6. Identify what factors to focus on that will support the most successful design possible from a customer’s perspective.

An affinity diagram is a method used to organize many ideas into groups with common themes or relationships. Affinity diagrams are tools for analyzing large amounts of data and discovering relationships which allow a design…