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Design methods: making sense of research glossary

49 terms from R06, Design methods I: making sense of research — 26 defined in the guide itself and 23 more from the field around it. Every term the guide teaches links to the slide that teaches it.

The whole craft glossary

R06 · What to build

Design methods I: making sense of research

What did we learn, and what does it mean for the design?

Every term below is defined in the words of design methods: making sense of research, guide R06 of craft guides for educational technologists, and opens the guide at the slide where it is taught. 23 of the 49 are the field’s vocabulary rather than the guide’s own: words a reader will meet around this subject, defined here because the guide assumes them. 6 terms are also defined by another guide in the series; where the two differ, both wordings are given. The whole craft glossary holds all of them together.

TermDefinitionReferred to inRead further
A
Abductive reasoning

Reasoning from a set of observations to the most plausible explanation for them. It is the step by which synthesis moves from what was seen to a claim about why.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15–28. doi
Affinity diagram

A wall of observations grouped by shared meaning, built from the bottom up, with each group labelled (Krause & Pernice, 2024).

  • Beyer, H., & Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual design: Defining customer-centered systems. Morgan Kaufmann. archive.org
  • Scupin, R. (1997). The KJ method: A technique for analyzing data derived from Japanese ethnology. Human Organization, 56(2), 233–237. doi
  • Krause, R., & Pernice, K. (2024). Affinity diagramming for collaboratively sorting UX findings and design ideas. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
Analytic memo

A note written by the analyst during coding that records an emerging idea, a question or the reason for a decision, and that later feeds the write-up.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
Atomic research

Breaking research into small linked units, such as facts, insights and recommendations, that can be found and reused (Pidcock, 2018).

B
Behavioural variable

A dimension on which the people studied differ in what they do, such as how often they mark work online. Personas are built from clusters of people who sit together on several.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Laubheimer, P. (2020). 3 persona types: Lightweight, qualitative, and statistical. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D., & Noessel, C. (2014). About face: The essentials of interaction design (4th ed.). Wiley.
C
Code

A short label attached to a passage of data, used to find and compare similar passages.

  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
Codebook

The list of codes used in an analysis, each with a definition, rules for when it applies and an example, kept so that coding stays consistent across people and time.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
Coding reliability

An approach to thematic analysis that uses a fixed codebook and measures agreement between coders (Braun & Clarke, 2021).

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
  • Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. SAGE.
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS)

Software for storing, coding, searching and retrieving qualitative data. It organises the analyst's work and does not do the analysis.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
Content analysis

A systematic method that assigns passages of text or other material to defined categories and often counts them, so that inferences can be checked and repeated by others.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (4th ed.). SAGE. doi
Current-state and future-state maps

A current-state map shows an experience as research found it. A future-state map shows the experience the team intends to create.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Gibbons, S. (2018). Journey mapping 101. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Kalbach, J. (2020). Mapping experiences: A complete guide to customer alignment through journeys, blueprints, and diagrams (2nd ed.). O'Reilly Media. openlibrary.org
E
Empathy map

A one-page chart of what a type of user says, thinks, does and feels, used by a team to pool what it knows about that user.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Gray, D., Brown, S., & Macanufo, J. (2010). Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rulebreakers, and changemakers. O'Reilly Media.
Evidence trail

The links from an insight or decision back to the observations it rests on.

F
Finding

A statement of what the research observed, backed by evidence. It comes before an insight, which says what the finding means and why it matters.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
Framework method

A way of analysing qualitative data by summarising it into a matrix of cases against themes, so that it can be read across cases and within each case.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Gale, N. K., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S., & Redwood, S. (2013). Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 13, Article 117. doi
G
Grounded theory

A research approach that builds a theory from the data by coding, comparing cases constantly and collecting further data until the emerging categories stop changing.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine.
H
How might we

A question format that turns an insight into an opportunity without naming the solution (IDEO.org, 2015).

  • IDEO.org. (2015). The field guide to human-centered design. IDEO.org. designkit.org
  • Basadur, B. (2021). The origin of "How might we?" Basadur Applied Innovation. basadur.com
  • Rosala, M. (2021). Using "How might we" questions to ideate on the right problems. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
I
In vivo code

A code that takes a participant's own word or phrase as its label, keeping their language in the analysis.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
Inductive and deductive coding

Inductive coding builds codes from what is in the data. Deductive coding applies codes set in advance from a theory, a framework or the research questions.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
  • Saldaña, J. (2025). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (5th ed.). SAGE.
Insight

An explanation of why a pattern exists. A claim, not a fact.

  • Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15–28. doi
  • Pidcock, D. (2018). What is atomic UX research? Prototypr. blog.prototypr.io
J
Job to be done

The progress a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance (Christensen et al., 2016).

  • Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Competing against luck: The story of innovation and customer choice. HarperBusiness. archive.org
  • Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers' "jobs to be done". Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54–62. hbr.org
  • Christensen, C. M., & Raynor, M. E. (2003). The innovator's solution: Creating and sustaining successful growth. Harvard Business School Press.
Journey map

A picture of the process a person goes through to reach a goal (Gibbons, 2018).

R02 A picture of what one person does, thinks and feels while completing a task.

  • Kalbach, J. (2020). Mapping experiences: A complete guide to customer alignment through journeys, blueprints, and diagrams (2nd ed.). O'Reilly Media. openlibrary.org
  • Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). This is service design doing: Applying service design thinking in the real world. O'Reilly Media.
  • Gibbons, S. (2018). Journey mapping 101. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
K
KJ method

The affinity method developed by the ethnologist Jiro Kawakita for making sense of field data (Scupin, 1997).

  • Scupin, R. (1997). The KJ method: A technique for analyzing data derived from Japanese ethnology. Human Organization, 56(2), 233–237. doi
M
Member checking

Taking findings or interpretations back to the people they came from, to check that they recognise the account as accurate.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE. doi
Mental model diagram

A diagram that lays out what people do, think and feel in pursuit of a goal, grouped into towers, with the organisation's features and services lined up beneath.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Kalbach, J. (2020). Mapping experiences: A complete guide to customer alignment through journeys, blueprints, and diagrams (2nd ed.). O'Reilly Media. openlibrary.org
  • Young, I. (2008). Mental models: Aligning design strategy with human behavior. Rosenfeld Media. doi
N
Negative case

A case that does not fit an emerging pattern. Analysts look for such cases on purpose and revise or limit the pattern until it accounts for them.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. SAGE.
Nugget

A tagged observation supported by evidence, the smallest unit of atomic research (Sharon, 2018).

O
Observation

Something that happened in a research session and that others could check from the record.

R04 A record of what happened, of the kind a camera would capture.

  • Ross, R. (1994). The ladder of inference. In P. M. Senge, A. Kleiner, C. Roberts, R. B. Ross, & B. J. Smith, The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. Currency Doubleday. archive.org
  • Pidcock, D. (2018). What is atomic UX research? Prototypr. blog.prototypr.io
  • Beyer, H., & Holtzblatt, K. (1998). Contextual design: Defining customer-centered systems. Morgan Kaufmann. archive.org
Opportunity

An insight turned into something to design for, usually written as a question.

R01 A need, pain point or desire that, if addressed, could move an outcome.

  • Torres, T. (2021). Continuous discovery habits: Discover products that create customer value and business value. Product Talk.
  • IDEO.org. (2015). The field guide to human-centered design. IDEO.org. designkit.org
  • Rosala, M. (2021). Using "How might we" questions to ideate on the right problems. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
P
Pain point

A specific place in a task or journey where a person meets difficulty, delay or frustration.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Gibbons, S. (2018). Journey mapping 101. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Kalbach, J. (2020). Mapping experiences: A complete guide to customer alignment through journeys, blueprints, and diagrams (2nd ed.). O'Reilly Media. openlibrary.org
Pattern

An observation that repeats across people or sessions, reported with a count.

R08 A reusable solution to a common user task, such as signing in, built from components.

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
  • Frost, B. (2016). Atomic design. Brad Frost Web. atomicdesign.bradfrost.com
  • Government Digital Service. (n.d.-a). Contribution criteria. GOV.UK Design System. Retrieved September 17, 2026, from design-system.service.gov.uk
Persona

A description of a fictional user that stands for a group. A model to test, not a finding.

  • Cooper, A. (1999). The inmates are running the asylum: Why high-tech products drive us crazy and how to restore the sanity. Sams. archive.org
  • Pruitt, J., & Grudin, J. (2003). Personas: Practice and theory. In Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Designing for User Experiences (pp. 1–15). ACM. doi
  • Chapman, C. N., & Milham, R. P. (2006). The personas' new clothes: Methodological and practical arguments against a popular method. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 50(5), 634–636. doi
Problem statement

A short statement of who has a problem, what the problem is and why it matters, written without proposing a solution.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Rosala, M. (2021). Using "How might we" questions to ideate on the right problems. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • IDEO.org. (2015). The field guide to human-centered design. IDEO.org. designkit.org
Proto persona

A persona built from a team's assumptions, with no new research (Laubheimer, 2020).

  • Laubheimer, P. (2020). 3 persona types: Lightweight, qualitative, and statistical. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Gothelf, J., & Seiden, J. (2013). Lean UX: Applying lean principles to improve user experience. O'Reilly Media.
Q
Qualitative persona

A persona built from qualitative research, starting from interviews with 5 to 30 users (Laubheimer, 2020).

  • Laubheimer, P. (2020). 3 persona types: Lightweight, qualitative, and statistical. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Pruitt, J., & Grudin, J. (2003). Personas: Practice and theory. In Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Designing for User Experiences (pp. 1–15). ACM. doi
R
Reflexive thematic analysis

An approach to thematic analysis in which the researcher's interpretation is part of the method (Braun & Clarke, 2021).

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. doi
Reflexivity

The analyst's examination of how their own position, assumptions and choices have shaped what they noticed in the data and what they made of it.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
Reframing

Shifting semantic perspective in order to see things in a new way, one of the main ways insights are formed (Kolko, 2010).

R03 Replacing the first description of a problem with another that opens different solutions.

  • Dorst, K. (2011). The core of 'design thinking' and its application. Design Studies, 32(6), 521–532. doi
  • Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15–28. doi
  • Dorst, K. (2015). Frame innovation: Create new thinking by design. MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu
Research repository

A central store of research outputs that others in an organisation can search (Rosala, 2024a).

  • Rosala, M. (2024a). Research repositories for tracking UX research and growing your ResearchOps. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Rosala, M. (2024b). Why research repositories fail and how to get them right. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
ResearchOps

The people, processes and tools that support researchers and let research scale, covering recruitment, consent, tooling, data handling and the sharing of findings.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Rosala, M. (2024a). Research repositories for tracking UX research and growing your ResearchOps. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
S
Saturation

The point at which enough data has been collected; one study of 60 interviews found it within the first twelve, which is not a general rule (Guest et al., 2006).

  • Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59–82. doi
Semantic and latent coding

Semantic coding records what participants said, at face value. Latent coding records the assumptions and ideas that lie beneath what was said.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
Statistical persona

A persona that adds to interviews a survey of at least 100, and ideally 500 or more, respondents (Laubheimer, 2020).

  • Laubheimer, P. (2020). 3 persona types: Lightweight, qualitative, and statistical. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Salminen, J., Guan, K., Jung, S.-G., & Jansen, B. J. (2021). A survey of 15 years of data-driven persona development. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 37(18), 1685–1708. doi
Synthesis

The work of organising, pruning and filtering research data into a cohesive structure: deciding what the material shows, what it means and what the team should do about it (Kolko, 2010).

  • Kolko, J. (2010). Abductive thinking and sensemaking: The drivers of design synthesis. Design Issues, 26(1), 15–28. doi
T
Taxonomy

The agreed, controlled set of tags and categories used to label research in a repository, so that different people file and find the same things in the same way.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Rosala, M. (2024a). Research repositories for tracking UX research and growing your ResearchOps. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
  • Rosala, M. (2024b). Why research repositories fail and how to get them right. Nielsen Norman Group. nngroup.com
Thematic analysis

Analysis in six phases, moving from familiarisation with the data and initial coding to developing, reviewing, naming and reporting themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
Theme

A pattern of shared meaning across data, organised around a central idea (Braun & Clarke, 2019).

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
Topic summary

A grouping that gathers everything said about one subject, as distinct from a theme, which is organised around a central idea (Braun & Clarke, 2019).

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. doi
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328–352. doi
Two-by-two matrix

A grid made by crossing two dimensions, giving four quadrants into which cases, users or ideas are placed to show how they differ.

  • R06Design methods IFrom the field · not in the guide
  • Lowy, A., & Hood, P. (2004). The power of the 2 × 2 matrix: Using 2 × 2 thinking to solve business problems and make better decisions. Jossey-Bass.

Nearby

The guide itself, and the ones either side

Read design methods: making sense of research (opens in a new tab)Evaluative research Design methods: sketching, prototyping and critique All 21 guides
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