Empathic Design: Human-Centered Design & Design Thinking

In this micro-certification, participants will learn about why you need to develop an understanding of the people you are designing for, and how—through observation, empathy & social research—you will be able to define the problem or opportunity to focus on, identify and evaluate complex challenges and opportunities at the intersection of design, technology, and social theory.

Learning Outcomes:

Employ a basic design vocabulary of elements and principles as related to human-centred design.
Consider relevant ethnographic research methods to understand people and context for uncovering insights.
Identify and evaluate complex challenges and opportunities at the intersections of design, technology, and social theory.

The pandemic makes most things harder. Staying healthy is harder. Connecting with others is harder. Making ends meet is harder. I’m sure each of us could add to this list from our personal experiences. But in addition to these familiar challenges, 2020 has put something else further beyond reach as well, something we need deeply: empathy.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share what others are feeling. Perhaps ironically (or tragically), the extreme polarization and isolation we are experiencing in society makes empathy difficult when we need it the most. In the very moment that COVID has made empathy a matter of life or death, we’ve allowed our politics to close our ears to one another.

Empathy is an important element in Design Thinking and Human-Centred Design.

What is empathy exactly?

Why is empathy so important to designing solutions that actually work for people? Here, we’ll not only look at what empathy means, but will also look at how it helps design thinkers create solutions that work and, conversely, how a lack of empathy can result in product failure. We’ll also come to understand the empowering notion that everyone can master empathy and design truly human-centred solutions.

Design thinking offers hope, and holds promise, for designing significant change. In a world fraught with misunderstanding and habitual polarization, innovation leading in the direction of a more humane world is tempting.

Empathy is one of seven key mindsets described by Ideo to guide human-centred design. By putting yourself in the shoes of the person you are designing for and understanding their lives, you will be better equipped to design innovative solutions to their challenges. 

“Empathy is when you can feel what another person is feeling. Empathy is the foundation of a human-centered design process; by deeply understanding people we are able to better design for them. “ — Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford

Human-centered design pioneer Don Norman, who coined the term ‘user experience,’ explains why he’s not convinced by the current obsession with empathy and what we should do instead.

I approve of the spirit behind the introduction of empathy into design, but I believe the concept is impossible, and even if possible, wrong. The reason we often talk about empathy in design is that we really need to understand the people that we’re working for. The idea is that, essentially, you’re in a person’s head and understand how they feel and what they think.

Mapping is one of the many visual and graphic ways used to solve problems or challenges and is extensively used by designers, marketers and problem solvers to be able to develop a deeper understanding of a specific area.

Empathy Mapping is a simple but effective tool used to visualize user/consumer/ target market attitudes and behaviors. By making the map visual and directing the inquiry at a specific target we are able to build a much better picture of our market. It’s often the case that these kinds of maps can reveal where we have gaps in our existing data and where we have made assumptions.

Empathy is as vital to the success of a project as a big idea and beautiful crafting. It is not a skill taught on most design degrees, but…

• stepping away from your own preferences and priorities
• digging into real consumer needs and behaviour
  observing without judgement
• getting under the skin of market and business dynamics
  actively listening and seeking to understand;
• … are all essential in developing greater empathy and work powerfully in delivering deeper consumer insights and uncovering the motivations and decision-making parameters of business leaders. 

The full list of UX literature that deals with Empathy, from the world’s biggest and most authoritative library of UX design resources.

What is Empathy?

In our previous article, we described how design thinking built upon empathy and intuition to identify critical user requirements and define imaginative ways to resolve their needs. In this post, we are going deeper into this user-centered process as the keystone to conceive and create a successful innovative product, service or process.

Human-centered design pioneer Don Norman, who coined the term ‘user experience,’ explains why he’s not convinced by the current obsession with empathy and what we should do instead.
I approve of the spirit behind the introduction of empathy into design, but I believe the concept is impossible, and even if possible, wrong.

The reason we often talk about empathy in design is that we really need to understand the people that we’re working for. The idea is that, essentially, you’re in a person’s head and understand how they feel and what they think.

In this tutorial we will learn what is empathy mapping, four-quadrants in Empathy mapping, theming and Difference between one user and multi-user empathy mapping. It is a visualization tool where designers gain an in-depth understanding of the user's behaviour and attitude. It also represents a group of users (multi-user mapping) such as a customer segment

Key Takeaways 
Improving patient experience requires maintaining patient experience goals over time allowing clinicians to align despite changes imposed on their daily practice.

Workflows comprising the shared experiences of the care team can improve experiences for our patients, staff, and clinicians.

The use of multiple tools, including lean improvement practices, human-centered design, and Empathetics, rather than relying on any single approach, drives improvement that is easier to achieve and maintain.

"Empathy is a central element of Design Thinking and UX. It’s fundamental in crafting design solutions and creating products that are useful and meaningful. 

Empathizing with our end-users allows us to understand the people we’re designing for, learn about them, and meet their physical and emotional needs. Today, we’ll take a look at what empathy is, its importance in the Design Thinking framework, and the most valuable sources of empathy. "

Adam Fard 

3 Benefits of Human-Centered Design
1. Empathy-based
Now more than ever we have been made aware of the vital importance of seeing the world through others’ eyes. Considering other people’s perspectives is what empathy is all about. 

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own.” -Henry Ford

Empathy is the cornerstone of human-centered design. The best way to serve people is to get to know them. 

Whether you’ve fully embraced working from home or are clamoring to get back to the normalcy of your organized work desk, the question on everyone’s mind seems to be, “when is it safe to go back to the office?” At Otherwise, we are zealous proponents of incorporating empathy into branding, and we believe that same practice extends into the physical space. So how could empathic design and the workplace call for a reimagined standard for the office?

What is an empathy map?
An empathy map is a collaborative tool that teams can use to better understand their customers. It consists of an image of the customer surrounded by six sections.

These sections are:

• Think and feel. What matters to the user? What occupies her thinking? What worries and aspirations does she have?
• Hear. What are friends, family and other influencers saying to her that impacts her thinking?
• See. What things in her environment influence her? What competitors is she seeing? What is she seeing friends do?
• Say and do. What is her attitude towards others? What does she do in public? How has her behaviour changed?
• Pain. What fears, frustrations or obstacles is she facing?
• Gain. What is she hoping to get? What does success look like?

Design thinking and empathy go hand in hand. Empathizing with customers is the only way to understand their needs and challenges, and devise ways for your products, services and projects to address them. In other words, empathy is great fodder for innovation.

Sound simple enough? In theory, it should be. But figuring out how to empathize with customers doesn’t come naturally to every team. Interacting with customers in their own environment can be uncomfortable and time-consuming. It might mean embracing skills you don’t often use.

Here are some techniques that can help you get the most from your efforts to engage:

At the front of the room, Sub Rosa’s founder and CEO, Michael Ventura, stood before the glowing screen. Tall with long dark hair, a beard, and fashionably casual clothes, he exuded a kind of urban shaman vibe. As one of the Fast Track sessions at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, the 90-minute workshop promised to introduce attendees to Sub Rosa’s Applied Empathy methodology, a corporate leadership approach designed to “drive internal cultural change, build better products, and connect [businesses] more deeply with [their] audiences.”

Ventura authored a book titled Applied Empathy and designed an Applied Empathy card game called Questions & Empathy that he describes as “a highbrow Cards Against Humanity—it escalates you from small talk to big talk ultra fast.” 

1. There is a “back-to-basics” focus on the fundamental mindsets and skills of design thinking.

I‘ve observed a growing demand from both nonprofit and for-profit organizations for support and training around the fundamentals, such as active listening skills and empathy-building methods.

While more and more employees have been exposed to the overall design thinking process, there is a sense that some of the essentials have been neglected.

This to me represents a sophisticated understanding of the design thinking framework, as a good design thinker is only as good as their foundational skills.

In addition to active listening and empathy-building, other fundamentals include comfort with ambiguity, a bias to action, group facilitation skills, and an ability to mindfully separate convergent from divergent activities.

Empathize With Your Community
Design thinking is a unique framework due to its emphasis on two phases that many other frameworks/mindsets don’t address: empathize and define. When these steps are overlooked, leaders often end up missing the core problem due to poorly diagnosing the needs of their intended audience.

When your audience/community is different from place-to-place, as is the case within the education space, a “one size fits all” approach is likely to fall short. As micro-schools and personalized learning continue to grow and school districts shift to fit the modern age, it has become more urgent than ever to immerse yourself and tailor your strategic marketing plan to the specific community that you are trying to serve.

Stage 1 – Use Empathy to Understand your Employees
Let’s start with stage one: empathy. Design thinking starts by listening to the most important person – and no, that’s not the CEO or the HR Director.

Instead, it’s that person who’ll be consuming your products: the humble, yet demanding, end user. For HR managers, that’s your employees.

Instead of jumping to engagement solutions (free fruit, anyone?), you’ll start by empathising. Empathy is about observing the facts and feelings from your employees’ point of view.

The best way to do this at scale is through an anonymous Engagement, Pulse or Exit survey.

Include a mix of question types: Allow for open-ended answers as well as likert scales. Collating the data is much easier if you have a single survey tool where all the result are in one dashboard.

Empathy involves asking ‘WHY' while designing;  Researchers & designers conduct workshops with clients and study users to identify the needs & challenges by empathizing with them which were not articulated by the stakeholders before. As a people skill, empathy helps in understanding - how the stakeholders & users perceive any problem within the context, how they feel about it and react in different situations. 

There are different approaches to generate requirements in various product development methods - agile, lean startup, waterfall, scrum, etc. One of the approaches that Lollypop team believes in is - Human Centred Design (HCD) Thinking, where we empathize with the users & stakeholders to address any problem-solution.