This document outlines a presentation on qualitative research and visual sensemaking. The presentation discusses the importance of empathy in design and challenges with qualitative data. It then shares four methods for analyzing qualitative data: affinity diagramming, 2x2 matrices, persona mapping, and empathy mapping. For each method, it provides an overview and example of how students used the method to synthesize interview data and gain insights about people over age 65. Throughout, it includes quotes from students reflecting on what they learned from applying these sensemaking techniques.

1. Walking in their shoes:
Qualitative Research and
Visual Sense Making
Lisa Spitz
September 2017

2. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Presentation goals
● The importance of promoting empathy in design.
● The challenges with qualitative research data and the
role of visual sensemaking.
● Share 4 methods for analyzing qualitative data.
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3. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
The challenge with qualitative research data
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4. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
The challenge with qualitative research data
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5. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Methods for analyzing qualitative data
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Category +important
-important
+time-time
SeeHear
Think & Feel
Say & Do
Pain Gain
Affinity
Diagramming
2x2
Matrices
low high
none lots
never always
Persona
Mapping
Empathy
Mapping

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“Design Thinking & Research”
Spring 2017

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Stanford D.School’s Design Thinking Framework

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Nielsen Norman Group’s Design Thinking 101: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/

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http://designthinking.co.nz/design-thinking-in-a-day/

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/design-thinking-uncovering-unknown-stefano-schintu

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Patricia Moore

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https://meikesoesilo.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/empathizing/

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The Process of Design Squiggle by Damien Newman, Central Office of Design is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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18. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Visual Sensemaking is...
“Visual SenseMaking is the activity of making sense of ambiguous
complex situation, through visual methods and tools including words,
images drawings, diagrams, charts, and graphs.”
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We make complex situations visual, clear and actionable.
http://www.humantific.com

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External visualizations allow
people to see their ideas within a
physical space, where they can be
acted upon through both physical
and mental actions (Martin, L.
and Schwartz, D. L.).

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22. Case Study:
Overview
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23. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
“Design a new product or
service that enhances social
activity (e.g. travel, mobility,
wayfinding, social networking,
or neighborliness) on a
day-to-day basis.”

24. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Project Description
To do this, you’ll engage directly with a group of User Experts in an inclusive design
process. These are your go-to individuals for understanding actual experiences someone
over 65 encounters on a daily basis. Together, you will explore the problem space, propose
ideas for a new product or service, and develop prototypes of your solution. One way to
think about this design challenge is to create an experience that you yourself would like to
encounter in a number of years’ time, because in reality the problems and difficulties these
individuals face, will one day be your own.
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User Experts
A user/expert is a person who has developed expertise by means of their lived experience
in dealing with the challenges of the environment due to a physical, sensory or cognitive
functional limitation.
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Steve Jeffrey Joan

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Phase 1

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Phase 1 Outcomes
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● See and Relate: Evidence of relating to multiple individuals, their lives, and contexts.
● Making Distinctions: Numerous distinctions being made regarding individuals
attitudes and beliefs. Distinctions are defining, have explanative powers, and clarify
our understanding of people.
● Communicating: Phase 1 presentation clearly articulates your research process and
uses stories to capture the problems and opportunities surrounding day-to-day life
for individuals over the age of 65.

28. Method 1:
Affinity Diagramming
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Affinity Diagramming
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What assumptions do you have
about people over 65? Affinity
diagramming was used to visualize
positive, negative and neutral
preexisting assumptions students
held about people over the age of
65. We worked the rest of the
semester to disprove (or prove)
these assumptions through
research.
Category
Category
Category

30. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
What is affinity diagramming?
“An affinity diagram is a tool that gathers large amounts of
language data (ideas, opinions, issues) and organizes them into
groupings based on their natural relationships.”
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www.balancedscorecard.org/portals/0/pdf/affinity.pdf

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What is affinity diagramming?
Affinity diagramming is useful for…
● Sifting through large amounts of data
● Understanding complex issues
● Encouraging new patterns of thinking
● Establishing group consensus
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www.balancedscorecard.org/portals/0/pdf/affinity.pdf

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Positive
Negative
Neutral

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Positive
Negative
Neutral
Outcomes
Students immediately
recognized their
overwhelmingly negative
assumptions about
people over 65 (and
hoped for their future
selves they were wrong).

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36. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making

37. “You can’t make assumptions about
what you think you know about
certain people.”
– Iskra Alexieva
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38. Method 2:
2x2 matrices
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39. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
2x2 Matrices
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+important
-important
+time-time
What is important to people over
the age of 65? 2x2 matrices were
used to visualize areas of life that
were most important and or
time-intensive to our user experts.

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Most important
Most time
+ important
–important
+time–time
Most valued. We wouldn’t
want to negatively impact
this area.

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+ important
–important
+time–time
Area of opportunity. If it’s
important, why aren’t
they spending time on it?
Most important
Least time

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+ important
–important
+time–time
Mundane parts of life
that are not particularly
enjoyable. Also OK to
leave “as is”
Least important
Least time

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+ important
–important
+time–time
Another possible area of
opportunity. If these are
least important, why do
people spend so much
time doing them?
Least important
Most time

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Outcomes
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Students used this method to
synthesize initial interview data and
to identify possible areas of
opportunity for design exploration.

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46. “What they’re concerned about is very
different than what our age group is
[concerned about].”
– Emily Paredes
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47. Method 3:
Persona Mapping
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Persona Mapping
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How are individuals similar or
different from one another?
Persona mapping was used to
identify individuals common goals,
attitudes and behaviors and create
User Personas.
low high
none lots
never always
P4 P3P2 P1
P3P1P2 P4
P4 P2P1 P3

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“A hypothetical archetype of actual users. Although they
are imaginary, they are defined with significant rigor and
precision. Actually, we don’t so much “make up” our
personas as discover them as a by product of the
investigation process. We do, however, make up their
names and personal details.”
“The Inmates are Running the Asylum”, Page 123
Alan Cooper
A persona is...

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Traveling Terry
Reading Randy
Identify
Patterns

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Outcomes
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Students used this method to
capture their understanding of
people’s underlying behaviors,
attitudes, values, and beliefs and to
find groups of people who were
similar to one another.

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59. “I learned the challenges of designing
not just for a single person, but for a
group of people with both similar and
different needs; and the difficulty of
finding a common ground.”
– Yolande Bennett
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60. Method 4:
Empathy Mapping
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61. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Empathy Mapping
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What does the world look like
from their perspective? Empathy
maps were used to visualize the
things people over the age of 65
think and feel, hear, say and do, and
see; as well as their current pains
and possible gains from a new
design invention.
user SeeHear
Think & Feel
Say & Do
Pain Gain

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What is an Empathy Map?
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Good design is grounded in a deep understanding of the person for
whom you are designing. Designers have many techniques for
developing this sort of empathy. An Empathy Map is one tool to help
you synthesize your observations and draw out unexpected insights.

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Why use an Empathy Map?
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Empathy maps are useful for…
● Immersing yourself into your user’s environment
● Discovering the underlying motives behind people's’ actions, choices and
decisions so we can proactively design for their real needs.
● Identifying gaps in your knowledge
● Synthesizing research and observations and drawing out insights across a
variety of user groups.

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Empathy maps describe what people are seeing,
thinking & feeling, saying & doing, and hearing.
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user SeeHear
Think & Feel
Say & Do
Pain Gain

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Outcomes
Students used this method to tell
a story about their user personas
and identify gaps in their
understanding.

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caregivers SeeHear
Think & Feel
Say & Do
Pain
Your turn!
Gain
patients SeeHear
Think & Feel
Say & Do
Pain Gain

68. Walking in their shoes: Qualitative Research and Visual Sense Making
Reflect and Share
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Think about what insights you’ve learned through this process:
● What themes were most common?
● What surprises you?
Choose someone from your group to present your findings.

69. “I soon realized that to empathize is
absolutely paramount in the design
process. One has to know so much
about a person; understand them; to
be able to fully empathize with them.”
– Joe DeSouza
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70. Thank You
Maggie Austen
IHCD Coordinator
Whitney Hill
IHCD Designer & Documentor
Gabriela Sims
IHCD Designer & Admin
Jeffrey Drucker
Steve Salmon
Joan Hill
User Experts
LUCAD Design Thinking and Research Class:
Seana Aiolupotea
Iskra Alexieva
Dana Balletta
Ayisat Balougun
Fattouma Bekali
Yolande Bennett
Diana Bortz
Olivia Boucher
Olivia Casey
Lauren Clayton
Michael Coleman
Jessie Cummings
Joseph Desouza
Shana Eang
Piper Galyean
Joab Garcia
Kaitlyn Gernatt
John Gersbeck
Jacqueline Gold
Kat Harshbarger
Gabriella Hoerzer
Sarah Jacobson
Vincent Jiang
Molisha Kapoor
Lucas Kuhn
Christine Lopez Corado
Matthew Mori
Lucy Nguyen
Emily Paredes
Stacia Pedersen
Erik Perez Lara
Hanna Piatrova
Jessica Richardsen
Tianna Rivera
Kristina Robinson
Kevin Silvestre
Jacob Viana
Meredith Wilson
Naiara Zerlotini

71. Questions?
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References
Duan, C., & Hill, C. E. (1996). The current state of empathy research. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 43(3), 261-274.
Gladstein, G. A. (1983). Understanding empathy: Integrating counseling, developmental,
and social psychology perspectives. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30(4), 467-482.
Harold, J. (2000). Empathy with fictions. The British Journal of Aesthetics, 40(3), 340-355.
Martin, L., & Schwartz D. L. (2014). A pragmatic perspective on visual representation and
creative thinking, 29(1), 80-93.
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