Importance of empathy in design thinking

Empathizing phaseUnderstanding Empathy

Empathy refers to the ability to understand and experience the emotions, and feelings of another person. In short, it means ‘putting ourselves in the shoes of the others’.

Empathy in Design

We know Empathy is the first and foremost step in design thinking which we need to follow throughout the process of ideation, prototyping, and testing.

The designers should try to solve the problem which the users face, so when they understand the mindset and the natural environment of the end-users, the designers can arrive at a favorable solution that addresses the problem and also meets their needs. So we as designers need to question what we observe instead of forming a biased opinion. The research should be conducted with the intention to understand more about the users by eliminating judgments and assumptions.

Empathy is an inborn ability but also it can be developed in time when we observe facial expressions, and body language and listen to the other person without assumptions.

Empathy mapping

Empathy mapping is one of the crucial tools that will let us make a clear picture of what the user is actually going through. Based on the results of qualitative research, we can chart out the empathy map. It will also help us in gathering more user data in the aspect where the data is insufficient.

Each of the above quadrants will help us to delve into the minds of our target audience.

What the user says: In this section, the designers can quote the words uttered by the users. We can observe their behavior and the actions that they make when they are in a conversation with us.

What the user thinks: We can explore the minds of users with the help of the results gathered in qualitative research. We can recollect what the user felt by their tone. The way how they respond to our questions can also make us understand their feeling.

What the user does: We can notice how the user behaves physically when he tries using the app during the usability study. We can acknowledge the actions that the users take and the way they take them.

Conclusion

One of the major aspects of UX Designers is to create a feasible solution for the users to make them use the app without having to face difficulty in finding the features by reducing the complexity of the application. We need to have users in the center and gain a deeper understanding of their requirements. By designing the application based on the user's needs and putting users first, we can effectively solve the user's problems and create a successful product.

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