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The crazy digital maze of algorithms, links, scrolls, click here, and swipes takes a toll wether we know it or not. Apps can be easier on a user. A product can actually deliver on it’s promise. A website can be a resourceful tool.

“Although empathy appears to be an innate ability, and men and women (on average) recognize other people’s emotions with equal accuracy, not everyone applies the approach in a work context. Empathy in design requires deliberate practice. We must intentionally seek opportunities to connect with people in meaningful ways and to set aside reactions and behaviors that will interfere with it. And, once empathy is achieved, it needs to be moderated: apply too much and our thinking loses focus; apply too little and the depth of our insight suffers,” writes Katja Battarbee, Jane Fulton Suri, and Suzanne Gibbs Howard in their article, Empathy on the Edge, published on IDEO.

How do we design with empathy?

There are various methods of empathic research one can use. There is no one-size-fits-all method. Methods I will mention may not be what works for you, and that is perfectly fine because everyone’s needs are different. What we are doing is observing what people’s needs are and developing for those needs.

Storyboarding the Experience

Just like you hear filmmakers talk about storyboards in motion pictures, these storyboards are similar. These sketches explain the entire process and customer experience, step-by-step

Ale Wiecek writes in her article, 9 Best Empathic Research Methods To Help You Dig Deeper & Truly Understand Your Customer, published on Medium.com, “this method is great for highlighting some of the pains, problems or friction points that users or customers might be having with a business, as well as any gaps in that experience.”

Service Safari

This is about a first-hand customer experience. You gain your inside and knowledge by literally walking in their shoes.

“This exercise is a really good and really easy way to walk in someone else’s shoes and it allows the researcher to develop an understanding of the common needs of the user, the common problems that they might encounter, and discover potential gaps that the researcher might have seen,” writes Wiecek.

Shadowing

The researcher in intertwined with the customer experience. They observe the process or processes that the customer has. This gives a full view of the process and function behind-the-scenes, which might not have been seen as an area of interest at the beginning.

Wiecek writes, “we recommend using this when you want to map a back-of-office process or when looking at the overall process-systems-people side of the project.”

What/How/Why Method

This method works best early on and with helping gather more observational data rather than experiences.

“For the what/how/why method, you’re sitting in an environment and observing what is the customer/user is doing, how they are doing it, physically, and from there, we go deeper still to understand why they are exhibiting those behaviours,” writes Wiecek.

Empathic Interviews & The Five Whys MEthod

This is a one-on-one interview where the researcher is will dig deep into the solution and assumptions. To get better, more thoughtful answers keep digging. The five whys come into play. Keep asking why as you peel the onion back.

Wiecek writes,“The best way to conduct an interview with empathy is not to assume the answers or lead them to an answer by saying “so, you’re telling me this…”. The key is to ask open-ended questions.”

The be a better designer requires a deep understanding of our customers.The truest way to gain that understanding is through being authentically curious of their experience. It is by being…empathy.