Cool brainstorming and organization of ideas!

Last week, I researched the KJ method and the Card sorting technique. Below is my research on these topics.

-KJ-Method is fundamentally similar to the Snowball Technique

Snowball Technique:

Involves concentrating groups of ideas pertaining to the same problem and assigning them a theme, i.e.

One slip of paper (or ‘post-its’) is used per idea generated or possible solution offered

A meeting is set up of up to 5 people. The slips of paper are viewed and then grouped ‘like with like’.

Duplicates can be created if the idea/solution is relevant to more than one group

Patterns and relationships in the groups are observed

-Falls under the Affinity Diagram which is one of the Seven Management and Planning tools. The seven tools include:

1.Affinity Diagram (KJ Method)
2.Interrelationship Diagraph (ID)
3.Tree Diagram
4.Prioritization Matrix
5.Matrix Diagram
6.Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC)
7.Activity Network Diagram

Devised by Jiro Kawakita in the 1960’s

-The KJ method can be used to :

-Analyse findings from field studies

-Identify and group user functions as part of design

-Analyse findings from a usability evaluation

Building an affinity diagram is a way to interpret customer data and:

-Show the range of a problem

-Uncover similarity among problems from multiple customers

-Give boundaries to a problem

-Identify areas for future study

Advantages of using the KJ method include:

• Involves the entire test team so they can "own" the data
• Builds teamwork because you are working in groups
• consolidates lots of customer data into meaningful design criteria
• Identifies customer work practices

Disadvantages of using the KJ method include:

• Can be time consuming
• Can be exhausting
• Is difficult to take large amounts of data and compress it into small "units of information"

CARD SORTING


-Is a variation of the KJ method.

-The card sorting method is used to generate information about the associations and grouping of specific data items. Participants in a card sort are asked to organize individual, unsorted items into groups and may, depending on the technique, also provide labels for these groups. In a user-centered design process, it is commonly used when developing a site architecture but has also been applied to developing workflows, menus, toolbars, and other elements of system design.

Card sorting is used to:

• Identify themes or patterns from qualitative data
• Develop the information and navigational architecture for a Web site or application
• Design or redesign a site or application
• Organize icons, images, menu items, and other objects into related groups
• Determine how a specific individual classifies items from a particular domain
• Examine how different groups (users versus developers, for example) view the same subject matter
• Rank or rate items on specific dimensions.

Advantages:

• Card sorts
• Typically the cost is a stack of index cards, sticky notes, a pen or printing labels, and some time. are easy for the organizer and the participants. it is possible to perform several sorts in a short period of time, which provides significant amount of data.
• The technique has been used for over 10 years, by many designers.
• Because the information structure suggested by a card sort is based on real user input

Disadvantages:

• Card sorting is an inherently content-centric technique. If used without considering users’ tasks, it may lead to an information structure that is not usable when users are attempting real tasks.
• The card sort may provide fairly consistent results between participants, or may vary widely.
• The sorting is quick, but the analysis of the data can be difficult and time consuming, particularly if there is little consistency between participants.
• Participants may not consider what the content is about or how they would use it to complete a task and may just sort it by surface characteristics

Now even though the video shows that card sorting should be done in groups, I feel that it should be done individually. This is to avoid any biased opinions and people who talk too much. If there are people who voice their opinions, they tend to take over the dicussion and persuade people to change their minds about various issues. It is advantageous to the developers to perform a card sort (whether it is open or closed) with a user who is not easily influenced by his/her surroundings.