How to improve empathy in the design thinking process?

‍We heard and read about the word empathy many times before. How being empathic could support your design thinking process in creating better products for your users. Being empathic is different from sympathy. Empathy is not only about understanding your users but intending to solve your users' problems; gathering the Why data. Sympathy on the other hand, is feeling sorry and understanding the situation from your perspective without analyzing why the other party feels and thinks in a certain way.

As designers, you are encouraged to be empathic towards your users. To make the world a better place, a better user experience, inventing a great product that people will love!

What is a Design Thinking Process?

A design thinking process is a non-linear 5 steps process that designers need to develop when creating a product or a service. The 5 steps of a design thinking process are:

• Empathize - Understanding your users
• Define - Collecting users’ data
• Ideate - Strategize ideas to accommodate research needs
• Prototype - Creating solutions based on users’ problems
• Test - Testing the solutions
  

These steps are crucial for designers to understand and fulfill the needs of the target users. In this blog, we will be focusing on the first important step of the design thinking process which is Empathize- applying empathy in the design thinking process.  

The Importance of Empathy in the Design Thinking Process

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Empathy is the ability to understand your users’ problems, needs, and wants. It is about listening and reaching out to your users. Being in their shoes. The success of your product are depending on how it can solve your users’ problems, make your users happy, and create a good user experience. Hence, this is why this soft skill is a valuable skill to learn, adapt and practice over time. 

The benefits of empathy in design thinking:

• Users feel heard and attended
• Reveal important information about your users that you might not think of
• Increase the ‘life-span’ of your product
• Creating a better user experience
• Support the process of customer mapping journey

and many more.

The 3 Strategies to achieve empathy in the design thinking process

1. The Empathy Map by Nielsen Norman Group
   

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, by structuring the empathy map in this manner designers are able to:

• Get rid of bias in designs and align the team on a common understanding of its user
• Identify your research weaknesses
• Identify user needs that they may not even realize they have
• Analyze why people behave the way they do
• Design meaningful innovations with these guidelines
  

2. Empathy Map Canvas by David Gray
   

Each of these parts is associated with the other.

• Who are we empathizing with?
• What decisions do they make?
• What do these users see?
• What do they talk about?
• What do they do and what are their lifestyles?
• What do the defined users hear about?
• What do they think or feel?
  

3. Tips to achieve empathy in the design thinking process: 
   

• Remove any concrete assumptions or judgments.
  You will connect with your users better without any expectations.
  
  
• Be present and remove any form of interruption.
  Fully engage with your user. Listen to their problems, study their facial expressions and body language.
  
  
• Have breaks between questions.
  Taking breaks may allow some time for quality answers and prevent burnout from answering questions back to back.
  
  
• Observe, listen, and learn from your users.
  Reflect on their answers and behaviors. What makes them behave in that particular manner?
  
  
• Be curious about the answers.
  Ask more questions to understand your users’ perspectives. 
  

Read more on How to create a fun remote design thinking workshop.

Signs of the absence of empathy in the design thinking process‍

The lack of empathy in the design thinking process could affect your product negatively, such as:

• You are not solving the right problems.
• You are fixing a non-existent problem.
• You are creating solutions based on your assumptions and zero users’ background data.
• You will likely spend a lot of money and spend a lot of time creating the 'ideal product'.
• You are targeting the wrong market. 
• You are not creating for the users. 
  

Learning to be empathic does not happen overnight. It needs constant practice, patience, and determination to support your users from the start until the end of their user experience.

‍Design Thinking with Empathy resources

• Books:
  

1: Design Thinking Empathy Book

2: Well-Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love

3: The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life's Most Essential Skill

• Youtube: Design Thinking: Empathize

Learning to be empathic does not happen overnight. It needs constant practice, patience, and determination with the goal to support your users from the start until the end of their user experience. 

By leveraging these three strategies, you can create a meaningful product that connects with and understands your target users.