How to build empathy with the people you design for Flashcards
What is empathy?
Empathy is our ability to see the world through other people’s eyes — to see what they see, feel what they feel and experience things as they do. Of course, none of us can fully experience things the way someone else does, but we can attempt to get as close to this as possible. We achieve this empathic state as we put aside our own preconceived ideas about the world and choose to understand the ideas, thoughts and needs of others instead.
How does empathy help you?
Appreciate people’s emotional and physical needs.
Gain insight into the way people see, understand, and interact with the world around them.
Realize how lives are impacted within the contexts being investigated.
Find out what people mean rather than just what they say — empathic research is inherently subjective and is concerned with motivations and thoughts, rather than facts.
What does Sympathy mean?
Sympathy is about your ability to show concern for the well-being of another, but does not necessarily require you to experience what others do.
What’s more, sympathy often involves a sense of detachment and superiority; when we sympathize, we tend to project feelings of pity and sorrow onto another person.
As a designer, you need to gain an empathetic understanding of what?
The people you design for. You should have a burning desire to observe, engage and empathize with the people you design for to understand their experiences and motivations. What’s more, you’ll need to immerse yourself in their physical environment if you want to have any chance at gaining a deeper personal understanding of the issues, needs and challenges involved in their day-to-day lives.
Why is empathy crucial to a human-centered design process such as design thinking?
It helps you set aside your own assumptions about the world to gain insight into your users and their needs instead.
It allows us to truly uncover and understand the latent needs and emotions of the people we design for.
What should you collect in the empathize stage of the design thinking process?
As many experiences, insights, and observations as possible, so you can build a solid foundation for the rest of your design project.
What are the three key parameters which define a successful product or service within the fields of innovation, learning, and entrepreneurship?
Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability
How can you design a product or service that aims for the sweet spot between feasibility, viability, and desirability?
This can only be achieved when you have built empathy for your users.
Why is empathy so important in design thinking?
a. It allows designers to create products that focus on business objectives.
b. It enables designers to create innovative solutions which are based on users’ needs.
c. It means designers can create one-size-fits-all products to solve problems.
b. It enables designers to create innovative solutions which are based on users’ needs.
What do you understand when you learn about people on an objective level?
You understand what they need to perform their tasks.
What do you understand when you learn about your target group on a subjective level?
You start to understand what they aim for and what they feel when they try to accomplish it.
What is the best way to collect subjective information?
To embed yourself in the context of your target group and gain personal insights into the experiences they have.
- Look at what people do
- Ask people to participate
- Try things yourself
What type of activity is most effective when you want to gain empathy with your users?
The most effective way to gain empathy with your users is to immerse yourself in their context. This means you can see what they see, feel what they feel and build an emotional connection with your users’ experiences. You should also pay close attention to what people say and don’t say and spend time with empathic people, however they are not as impactful as complete immersion.
When you take note of what people don’t say, you gain a better understanding of:
What is being avoided or covered up, and therefore what they truly need.
When you advance your listening skills and take note of what people do and don’t say, you’ll start to learn what is being avoided or covered up. This will help you understand what your users truly need and therefore how to design effective solutions. You should be more concerned with how much you care about others, and will gain a better understanding of users’ contexts and environments through immersion.
When you engage with extreme users, you gain empathy with your users because:
Extreme users tend to voice problems that mainstream users feel but find it hard to explain.
Extreme users are a small proportion of your user group but when you engage with them, you can gain excellent insights that other users may never have experienced or may simply be unprepared to disclose. You should not design solutions specifically for extreme users—you should use their insights to sieve out problems that mainstream users might have trouble voicing.
