Mental Model example by Indi Young
As designers, we deal with a lot of research and ethnographic data. Data collected during interviews, contextual inquiries, brainstorming, secondary research etc. I have always believed that synthesizing the collected data in the right manner, after interviews is the key responsibility of a user experience designer. Till date the “Affinity Diagrams” have been my best friends to organize and structure the data. They have helped me gain insights with respect to the task flows, user goals and also find relationships between ideas.
I recently stumbled upon an article by Indi Young (one of the founders of Adaptive Path) where she describes the concept of “MENTAL MODELS” to affinitize the collected data based on four primary attributes : behavior, motivation, philosophy, and emotion.
Young says , “Mental models give you a deep understanding of people’s motivations and thought-processes, along with the emotional and philosophical landscape in which they are operating.Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.”
I found this methodology refreshing and effective as it goes beyond tasks and goals. It allows designers to user the power of empathy to design products / interfaces that take into consideration the human emotions.
Indi Young and Brad Colbow have a unique and fun way to help people understand what they mean by mental models.In this comic, Indi and Brad introduce mental model diagrams to us and how we can use them to build better websites.
Hope you enjoy this comic as much as I did !
