Empathy Matters

Many design cycles use empathy as the foundation of the process. But, what is empathy and how to we use the power of empathy to create more meaningful designs for our users? Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another individual or group. Without empathy, we might not fully realize the needs of who we are designing for. Questions you should be asking are "what does this person care about?" and "what do they value?"

So how to I gain empathy during the design process?

1) Interviews

Interviews are a great way to gain insights into how a person feels, and what they care about. Keep asking why, ask "show me" and don't be afraid to dig deeper.

2) Observations

Observe users. Be curious and take note of anything that stands out to you. One helpful things to look for is hacks that a person has made to meet their needs. It's not what they say, but how they interact with their environment is important.

3) Empathy Immersion

Walk in your users shoes. This is a powerful way to gain insights, and particularly useful when teams are solving problems. These shared experiences help teams connect to create more innovation solutions to a group's problem.