"The definition of empathy is the ability to be aware of, understanding of, and sensitive to another person’s feelings and thoughts without having had the same experience.
As human-centered designers, we consciously work to understand the experience of our clients and their customers. These insights inform and inspire our designs.
IDEO CEO Tim Brown describes design empathy as a mental habit (Brown, 2009). It is also a fundamental cultural value that allows our designers to develop concepts, products, services, strategies, and systems that are both innovative and responsive to actual user needs and desires (Black, 1998)."
By Katja Battarbee, Jane Fulton Suri, and Suzanne Gibbs Howard, IDEO
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