Design Empathy
Empathy in Human Centered Design
Objectivity is the most important Design skill — Part 1
In nearly every conceptual, practical, or philosophical view of Everyday Empathy, popular culture is correct. Empathy is pretty great.
Down the rabbit hole of popular Design theory, Empathy becomes considerably more nuanced.
Empathy as a Design Attitude
Who is the Human benefiting from the Design solution?
Because “success” of the Human Centered Design process is most effectively measured by the degree of a Design solution’s benefit to its human actor, Human Centered Design practitioners must understand the stated human need, as well as the motivating nature of the need, to effectively respond with Design solutions that create meaningfully impactful products, services, and experiences on the actor’s behalf.
What is the human feeling? What is the human thinking? What does the human need? What does the human want? What is the human’s ideal outcome? What are the human’s motivations and expectations? What are the human’s measures of success? How can we create systems that directly benefit the human? How can we create meaningful benefits for all of the humans acting within a system?
How can we better understand the motivating nature, circumstance, and context, of the human’s need, ideal outcome, or measure of success?
By being Empathetic.
Assuming the perspective of the human benefiting from the Design solution gives Human Centered Design practitioners a method to understand the context and meaning of collected Design Research, Human Centered system observations, and qualitative human feedback.
Within Human Centered Design processes, Empathy is the attitude, method, and practice of assuming the point of view of an identified human actor to better understand their needs, outcomes, and metrics for success, when designing meaningfully impactful services, products, or experiences.
Why Empathy is Confusing
According to Design Culture, Empathy is Everything.
As the conceptual usage, and industry attitude of the word “Empathy” continues to evolve within the intersection of Design philosophy and practice, it has become increasingly difficult to find a crisp, meaningful definition on which to base team expectations.
Empathy Everyday. Empathy is Compassion. Empathy Works. Empathy is a Stage. Empathy is a Foundation. Empathy is a Powerful Sales Technique. Empathy is a Lifestyle. Empathy is a Key. Empathy is a Framework.
With each new philosophical perspective highlighting the conceptual value of Empathy, its practical purpose within Human Centered Design can often become misunderstood. This misunderstanding leads to emotionally subjective interpretations of the human actor, resulting in Design solutions that do not meet objectively identified needs, goals and ideal outcomes.
Because each Collaborative Design contributor brings with them a different perspective (or article) on how valuable Empathy is as a worldview, business practice, or technological philosophy, there can be numerous disagreements about its interpretation and use when participating in the Design of practical, real-world solutions.
Empathy has such a wide range of interpretations and emotional considerations outside of the Design space, that it becomes a difficult subject to tackle when setting expectations for the attitude of Collaborative Design teams.
Empathy in Human Centered Design Frameworks
How Empathizing with the Human Actor Drives Design Processes.
As Design practitioners highlight the perspective of the human actor across collaborative teams and functions, participating contributors align around a common Human Centered objective.
Human Centered Design places an identified human actor at the center of a series of contextual problem statements, around which Design practitioners frame discovery research, testing hypothesis, and Collaborative Design exercises to determine “Human-Driven” Design solutions.
The goal of the Human Centered Design team is to create meaningful benefit for the “human actor” by viewing Design challenges from their perspective when making decisions that will impact the actor’s experiences.
With empathy serving as an effective way to understand the “Human” part of the Design team’s problem statement, practitioners are able to more effectively gauge the “success” of the solution throughout the Design planning, creation, and implementation phases. This attitude of “Perspective-Based Decision Making” guides Design practitioners throughout the iterative creation of any process, function, or service, providing a touch point for the human actor within a system.
Articulating the human actor’s perspective gives the Design team a frame of reference for the context of the actor’s needs, bringing together otherwise disparate facts and feedback to create a clear view of the Design problem, as well as the solution.
Establishing empathy as a team philosophy drives Design attitudes and discussions when creating a wide variety of Design or Research artifacts, deliverables, or solutions.
Designing with Empathy means that team observations, hypothesis, discussions, and solutions focus on creating benefit, or improving the condition, relationship, or experience, of the human actor.
Responding directly to human needs, making choices with the human’s benefit in mind, and incorporating meaningful human feedback, all represent practical applications of Empathy within Human Centered Design philosophies.
Empathy Applied
Empathy is meaningless without a meaningfully defined purpose.
As varying popular usages of the word “Empathy” continue to shift its tactical, professional use, it becomes increasingly important for Collaborative Design practitioners to re-center Empathy as an objective attitude when participating in the Human Centered Design process.
When Design practitioners objectively assume the point of view of a human actor, Empathy has a practical, beneficial purpose within the Human Centered Design framework.
The goal of Empathy within the Human Centered Design process is to create a perspective-based understanding of human needs, ideal outcomes, and measures of success. By understanding the actor’s perspective, Design practitioners frame objective assumptions and observations to create a solution for further feedback and testing.
The Human Centered Design toolkit includes a wide variety of collectively established exercises, attitudes, and techniques, to objectively establish a deep understanding of the needs of the human actor, and then meaningfully respond by testing and assessing different human-facing hypothesis to identify and deploy the most beneficial Human Centered solution.
Applying Empathy within Human Centered Design practice gives Design practitioners a method to better understand and contextualize the motivations of the human actor by objectively viewing the conditions or benefits of the Design solution from the human’s perspective.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Empathic Design — Part 2
This article is the second part of a series, condensed from the longer article: Objectivity Is The Most Important Design Skill.
