Activity Diagram

What is an Activity Diagram?

An activity diagram is a block diagram of sequential and parallel activities that capture user interactions with a product, service or system.

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Why an Activity Diagram?

It brings clarity to our understanding of the user activity flow, and can be used to discover opportunities for automation, removing unnecessary steps users take, combining functions and potential failure modes.

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Process Phase

Define

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Time

45 mins

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Materials

Paper, Markers, Post-its, Wall/Board

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Method Card Reference

DI Method Cards_Compiled Deck_Version 2.
DI Method Cards_Compiled Deck_Version 2.
 

Procedure

1.

Observe (or hypothesize)

  • the activities and user interactions with a product, service or system (PSS)

2.

Record

  • each step individually on a Post-it Note

3.

Connect

  • the activities in a single block diagram with directed arrows

4.

Repeat Observation

  • with another user to validate your diagram

    • extract insights, foresights and latent needs

Best Practices

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A.

Activities should start with verbs (action words)

B.

Work on naming activities first as an individual then refine it as a group

 

Demo Video

This video gives you a walk-through on how to create an Activity Diagram, through a worked example of a Autonomous Vehicle Design Challenge.

Examples

 

Here are examples of Activity Diagrams done for products, services and systems.

References

  1. Otto, K. N., and K. L. Wood. "Product design: techniques in reverse engineering and new product development." (2001).

  2. Hammer, M. (2014, August 01). Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1990/07/reengineering-work-dont-automate-obliterate

  3. Camburn, Bradley A., Jan M. Auernhammer, Karen Hui En Sng, Paul J. Mignone, Ryan M. Arlitt, K. Blake Perez, Zack Huang, Subarna Basnet, Lucienne T. Blessing, and Kristin L. Wood. "Design Innovation: A Study of Integrated Practice." In ASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC), pp. V007T06A031-V007T06A031. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2017.

  4. Teo, K., Wee, Y., Swee, A., Altybayeva, A., Gopal, M., Kamiso, N., Foo, D., Lauff, C., Wood, K.L., “Design Innovation (DI) Learning Modules,” SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC), SUTD, Singapore, idc.sutd.edu.sg, 2018.