For the initial organization we arranged our notes into categories based on how the information was collected. This allowed us to focus on distilling notes from one research process at a time. This also enabled us to color the information based on how we collected them and who we collected them from. This was a good first way to just get some of our important information up onto the board in a focused way.

Unsure of where to start, we first just grouped our results into common categories we saw. We found that a lot of people expressed some sort of struggle so this felt like a natural category. We also had a lot of people describe their process for getting into a vehicle, so we put all of this data together. Additionally, people expressed products they wish they had and products they liked so we made these their own categories. Lastly we had statements that we were unsure where they would fall but were things people had shared with us, so we put them into statements.

In the second iteration, we initially wanted to just divide up our struggles and process categories even more since they were the largest. However, as we started organizing them we found that things from the wishes/statement categories also fit with some of the struggles/processes expressed. So we began to reorganize the whole diagram in a new way. We began to break the notes up into common issues and common parts of the car that people had expressed thoughts on. Originally this was a mix of broad topics like “assistance” with some smaller categories like “steering wheel.” However, after further organization on the board we found that the broad categories didn’t have many notes anymore as everything could be divided into the smaller categories. So in iteration 2 you can see these smaller categories which focus on specific parts of the car, people’s process of getting into cars, problems people face due to specific medical conditions, and other thoughts expressed on devices beyond just a car (like a cane). We also have a miscellaneous category of notes we are still deciding where they might fit. This is the current state of where our affinity diagram is.

What did you learn? 

The problems that the team gathered through research were diverse and varied. There are many different categories of notes and problems that the team found. The team was able to get many data points of the different processes of entering/exiting the cars. The team also found that many older people struggled and complained about the height of the car.

In what ways did this bring clarity to your project? 

Using affinity diagramming allowed us to organize and better understand individual notes or aspects from different research data points. The team worked on analyzing these individual data points in order to find common patterns or ideas between the data points/sticky notes. This allowed us to see what areas might provide the most room for improvement when it comes to defining our problem statement moving forward. In affinity diagramming, instead of looking at each individual research technique it let us combine all the research together to get a more holistic picture.

What was challenging? 

There were many instances where there was no obvious category to put the research point in. The team dealt with this challenge on a 1 by 1 basis by deciding as a team where to put the note, or even if a new category needs to be created. Even then, the team still had a miscellaneous category of a few points in the end that the team couldn’t divide where they fit.

What do you still have questions about? 

The team would still like to know where exactly the “stopping point” is for organizing the notes. The team has gone through multiple iterations of categorizing the notes and there is no clear stopping point/knowing when to be satisfied with the level of categorization.

What might you need to change/revise in the future?

We might need to combine different categories so that we do not have as many. We might also look into completing another iteration if we find that it would help in terms of further organizing or breaking down our current categories even more.