Figma – FigJam: affinity map and journey map

Goal

In this session you organize your research material on a FigJam board: raw notes become an affinity map, and from that an insight, a persona, and a user journey map. The exercise prepares the board for homework 2.

What do we use FigJam for in research?

Organizing research notes is shared visual work: stickies can be moved, colored, and merged. FigJam gives tools for this: templates, colors, voting, sections. The point is that every sticky can be traced back to the original source (who said it, in which interview), so the insight does not lose its evidence.

Task: affinity map and journey map

1. Create a new board or a new page next to the board of homework 1 ("2. Research").
2. Import the notes onto stickies. Each sticky is one quote or observation. Write the mark of the source on it (P1, P2…). Use different colors for the quote, the observation, and your own interpretation (a legend is needed!).
3. Group intuitively, without categories: drag similar stickies next to each other.
4. Name the groups with a statement each in a section header. Count how many different participants appear in the group.
5. Formulate an insight for the two strongest groups using the "observation → interpretation → design consequence" template. Put the insight in a separate section, and connect it with an arrow to the stickies that prove it.
6. Make a persona card in a section: situation, goal, knowledge/device, constraint, risk. Where it is an assumption, mark it with an attached sticky.
7. Draw the journey map: build a grid (columns: stages; rows: steps, thoughts, feeling, pain point, opportunity). You can use the table tool or sections and stickies.
8. Draw an emotional curve as a simple line or by connecting points: the feeling rises and falls based on the research quotes.
9. Mark the biggest pain point, and write next to it which insight it connects to.
10. Share the board with the instructor.

Checklist

• Every insight has a source among the stickies.
• The quote, observation, and interpretation are separated by color.
• The persona does not contain detail without research unless marked.
• The journey follows a single task.
• There is no identifiable personal data on the board.

Tips

• If you cannot group, ask another student to group your stickies without knowing the interviews. If they put it together differently, that is an interesting signal.
• Do not put all the stickies into the insight; the goal is to condense the most important ones.

Learning resources

• Figma Learn – official help: search for "FigJam" and "sections"