Stanford D.School workshop on Design Thinking : Empathy
A glimpse into the colorful world of creative problem solving and innovative thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford a.k.a D.School. Using design thinking principles and human-centered prototype driven approach we tackled a real-world project as an innovative challenge. As we struggled through the various stages of the project, we experienced and learned the mindset, tools and processes in design thinking.
Part1: Form Teams, set the mood and learn about empathy
Our project was to redesign the Stanford dining experience and observe the operations, students and activities at the various dining halls at Stanford. We were quickly paired with students and professionals whom we had never met before and our team was assigned a fun coach. Over the next 1o minutes, we ran through a bunch of fun team camaraderie building exercises. It felt very quick paced, but it instantly forced us to wake up and get out of our bubbles!
Team Exercises:
What is your super-power and what is your kryptonite?
30 seconds of non-stop “I Love and I Hate”
If your were an animal, what would you be and why?
After a few laughs we dove right into our project and first stage of the design process: Empathy.
Empathy is when you can feel what another person is feeling. By deeply understanding people, seeing what they see, hearing what they hear, gaining insights into their intellect, we are able to better design for them.
Our instructions:
Become a 4 year-old “Why” machine. Don’t judge. Just observe.
Question everything…especially what you already know.Be truly curious.
Find patterns. Listen. Really. Absorb what users say to you,
and how they say it.
#1 Empathy Technique: Observation
What? How? Why?
What is the person doing? How is the person doing that (emotions and techniques present)? Why is the person doing that in that way (what inferences can we draw)?
#2 Empathy Technique: Interview
Be human. Seek stories and talk about feelings. Our team interviewed students in and around the dining halls. We welcomed silence ( so that the user might say something deeper), didn’t suggest questions and kind of let the interview flow with whatever focus point the interviewee responded with. With no hard interview checklist, it felt rather liberating to just let go and let the users talk it out. Here is a sample interview:
Inro:
Interviewer: Hello! We’re in a Stanford design workshop. We’re doing a project on redesigning the Stanford dining experience. Could we talk to you for a few minute?
Interviewee: Sure.
Interviewer: Great! My name is Nandita and what’s your name?
We exchange names.
Build Rapport:
Interviewer: So how are you doing today? (and actually listen).
Interviewee answers. Good, just finished eating.
Interviewer: Well I have had just a busy day but it was great that the Tressider Cafe was open early in the morning! Love their panini. Have you tried it out?
Interviewee: Yeah! It’s awesome.
Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about your experience today here at this dining hall. How did you end up coming here?
Interviewee: Well I just got off of work from the campus residence hall and this was the closest place. It was 3:30 PM so I am glad this place is open for lunch.
Evoke Stories:
Interviewer: Smiles & encouragingly nods. What was your worst/craziest/most memorable experience with this dining hall?
Interviewee: Umm. They had greek food once that was pretty cool. It was pretty good too! I am pretty new here so I don’t know what all menus they go through.
Interviewer: Greek food sounds yummy! Can you tell me the first time you came to this hall? What do you remember about that day?
Interviewee: Well I wasn’t sure about dining timings so I came at an odd hour. I expected everything to be gone or dry sitting outside..to my surprise they just took out a fresh batch of food from the back.
Talk about feelings:
Interviewer: How did you feel at that moment when you were surprised by the dining cafe?
Interviewee: You know its a dining buffet hall and I feel they wouldn’t really care about the most freshest food or to cater to students at odd times.
Interviewer: Why do you say that you were surprised ? Tell me more. Silent to let the user keep talking.
Interviewee: I am a freshman so maybe I miss the caring atmosphere back home more. But initially it was like each student for himself and I wasn’t really sure about the dining menu or timings. I was worried if I would get anything good that day to eat and I felt embarrassed not knowing what to do.
Interviewer: What was so different about this dining hall?
Interviewee: They ask if you need help here and answer in a friendly manner.
….
Other interviewing tips:
Avoid averages like “What do you usually eat?”, instead ask what did you eat today. People often give a masked answer especially when revealing eating habits.
Encourage user to just keep going on with their story. Don’t interrupt.
Be friendly and courteous. Encourage by saying “Tell me more!” Replace “why” with a friendlier “howcome” from time to time.
Don’t fill in words during the interview yourself.
Don’t talk more than 50% during the interview.
Structure questions to be open-ended and avoid questions with a simple “yes/no” response.
Listen! Don’t start thinking of your next question why the user is answering.
A note on Extreme Users:
Extreme users are a great source for interviews, because their behaviors and feelings are often amplified. They help you notice nuances and develop insights. For example we interviewed a student with severe allergies, who usually stuck to salads and seemed extremely hesitant and stressed during the menu selection process.
A note on video interviews:
Gather and analyze video footage of the interview. Observe body language and emotional states at various points of the interview.
Focus on facial expressions and interactions with the product caught on film. Look for inconsistencies of what people said and what they ended up doing later.
#3 Empathy Technique : Get the user involved!
Journey Map: Get the user to create a map of his emotions with a journey map as below. After he has drawn the map, ask specific questions on his feelings and logical decision making at various points.
Image Emotion Photos: Hold images of emotions and ask them to pin-point which they felt during each of their responses.
GE Children Scanner: Empathetic Design
Doug Dietz was an engineer at GE and was involved with MRI and CT scanner development. His machines were saving lives and during one of his empathic research courses he decided to study people using his machine. To his amazement he observed that 80% of the children who had to go through CT scans were extremely scared of the system and had to be in fact sedated. Perplexed he took on the task of understanding children and spent time at day cares looking at the world through their eyes. Armed with observational research and design thinking, he solved this problem in a very innovative manner. See his designs below. With a focus on children’s psychology and an understanding of their attitudes, he was able to reduce the percentage of children requiring sedation to a mere 5%.
Next up: Design & Ideate
