It externalizes knowledge about users in order to:
– create a shared understanding of user needs, and
– aid in decision making.
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Empathetic design caters to real user needs, rather than supposed “averages”. One of the main objectives of the empathize stage is to identify user needs and behaviors that are latent, or unarticulated. As a designer, it’s important to distinguish between what people say they want, and what they actually need. In reality, users may have habits or desires that they’re not aware of, so it’s essential for the designer to actually observe the user.
Empathetic research and design is not concerned with facts about the user, such as their age or location. Rather, it focuses on their feelings towards a product and their motivations in certain situations. Why do they behave in a certain way? Why do they prefer to do this instead of that? On digital communications, why do they click here rather than there when presented with a particular screen or page? These are the kinds of insights you’ll uncover during the empathize phase, and they’ll help you to create user experiences that cater to your audience.
Throughout the empathize phase, you should constantly be considering the what, how, and why of your users’ behavior. The what-how-why framework can help you translate your (assumption-free) observations into more abstract user motivations. Divide your page into three sections and break down what you’ve observed as follows:
• What? Refers to the details of what has happened: for example, the user took the following actions when entering their payment details on an e-commerce website.
• How? Here you will consider how the user has completed these actions. What were their facial expressions? Were they exerting a lot of effort? Did they seem at ease, frustrated, or confused?
• Why? Now it’s time to make some educated guesses about the user’s motivations and emotions as they complete these tasks.
The more you reflect on how and why your users might behave in a certain way, the more you can empathize with (and design for!) them.
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Empathy Mapping requires you to consider your users in relation to four different quadrants:
• Says: Contains direct quotes based on what the user has said,.
For example during an empathy interview.
• Thinks: Considers what the user might be thinking, but may not want to explicitly reveal.
For example: “Am I stupid for not being able to navigate this website?”
• Does: Looks at concrete actions the user takes,,
For example: refreshing a page, clicking a button, comparing different options before making a purchase.
• Feels: Considers what emotions the user is experiencing at certain points.
For example: “Frustrated: Can’t find what they are looking for on the page.”
Some Empathy Maps also create a See and Hear section to highlight audience response, and/or a Pains and a Gains section to highlight audience values.
Here is an example of a simple Empathy Map:
