What Is an Empathy Map & How Do You Build One?

9 min readFeb 4, 2022

UX professionals have a responsibility to advocate on behalf of users. Doing that, however, requires a deep understanding of users so that we may also help our colleagues understand them and their needs. Empathy maps are powerful and essential tools for accomplishing both these things.

Empathy maps are collaborative visualizations that illustrate everything we know about a specific type of user. They contain knowledge about users and create a shared understanding of their needs, thus helping with decision making.

In this article, we’re going to look at how to build an empathy map and how it can help you make better design choices for your users.

Format

Typically, empathy maps are split into 4 quadrants — Says, Thinks, Does, Feels — with persona in the center of these quadrants. Empathy maps are not chronological or sequential, but instead simply provide insight into who a user is as a whole.

The Says quadrant is reserved for what users say out loud during the interview or usability study. It should ideally contain direct quotes, such as:

· “I need something reliable.”

· “I don’t know where to go from here.”

· “I enjoy using X because I’ve never had a bad experience.”

The Thinks quadrant contains the user’s thoughts throughout their experience. To populate this quadrant, ask yourself what the user is focused on and what matters to them. Keep in mind that both the Says and the Think quadrant can contain the same information, but also pay attention to what they may not be willing to vocalize and the reasons for this — are they afraid, polite, unsure, etc.?

· “This is annoying.”

· “Is it my fault I’m not understanding this?”

The Does quadrant contains the user’s actions, what they are physically doing and how they are doing it.

· Refreshes page multiple times.

· Scrolls back and forth.

The Feels quadrant refers to the user’s emotions as they relate to a specific aspect, which is why the are usually written as an adjective, followed by a short sentence for context and clarification. Ask yourself what the user worries about, what excites them, and how the experience makes them feel.

· Confused: poorly grouped elements.

· Annoyed: too many steps for basic function.

· Impatient: long loading times.

Humans are complex and it is normal to see juxtaposition between the four quadrants — and very beneficial. Certain inconsistencies should be expected, such as negative emotions toward positive actions, which is exactly why empathy maps are so valuable in understanding users and resolving these conflicts.

While some quadrants may seem a bit ambiguous or even too similar — Thinks and Feels — don’t get too hung up on being precise. If you feel an item fits into several quadrants, simply pick one. Their role is to enrich our knowledge of our users and ensure that we don’t leave out any important aspects of their experience. If you find yourself without something to put in a specific quadrant, it very likely means you should continue with more user research before advancing the design process.

Single-user & multiple-user empathy maps

Empathy maps help UX professionals get a grasp on what they know about their users and where they still need to dig deeper for insight. They can focus on an individual user, or they can be aimed at groups of users:

· single-user empathy maps are typically based on a user interview or their log from a diary study.

· multi-user (or aggregated) empathy maps focus on user segments, rather than individual users. These are typically created by combining multiple single-user maps from users similar enough that they can be grouped into a segment. A multi-user map can synthesize themes observed in a group and can even be the starting point for the creation of personas. While they are not a replacement of personas, they can be useful in their creation.

· multi-user empathy maps can also be used to summarize data like surveys or field studies. For example, they can communicate a persona instead of the more traditional “business card” approach. As you gather more details about that persona, you can return to the empathy map and add or remove insights which are no longer valid.

How you should use an empathy map

Here is how an empathy mapping session may play out: first of all, you assemble a team and task them to each bring any insights on your empathy map’s target. Print out the empathy map template or draw it on a whiteboard and hand everyone sticky notes and markers. Everyone then writes their thoughts on the sticky notes and ideally places add least one note to each section.

Here are some questions you may ask:

· What would the user think and/or feel? Do they have any worries or aspirations?

· What would the user’s colleagues, boss, or friends say while the user is using the product? What would the user hear from them?

· What would the user see as he is using our product in their environment?

· What would the user say or do while using our product? Would that change depending on whether they are in a private or public setting?

· What pain points or fears does the user have while using our product?

· What might the user gain when they are using our product?

Next up talk to your team members about their sticky notes as they place them on the empathy map. Ask further questions to get even deeper insights and elaborate on them together with the other team members. To better understand the user, you may even want to write down their characteristics.

After you’ve finished the session, ask everyone on the team what insights they gained and what new hypotheses they have about the users that they’d like to validate.

When you should use an empathy map

You can use an empathy map whenever you feel you need to be more immersed in your users’ environments.

For example, this can be helpful when:

· you want to dive into the customer segments of the business model canvas

· elaborate on your user personas

· capture behaviors when you are interviewing customers

· fleshing out the user in a user story

Why you should use an empathy map

Empathy maps should always be used throughout a UX process as they establish a common ground between all those involved, and they help with better understanding users and prioritizing their needs. To get the most out of empathy maps in user-centric design, it’s best to use them from the very beginning.

The finished map as well as the process of building it bring several benefits to your organization:

· reveal information about a user or persona — the process of building an empathy map can help distil and structure your knowledge of the user in a single place. You can use them to:

o categorize and better understand your research (notes, surveys, interviews, etc.)

o reveal gaps in your current knowledge and identify the research required to address them.

o group single-user empathy maps to create personas

· educate others on a user or persona — empathy maps are great ways to illustrate user attitudes and behaviors, which makes them a source of truth throughout the project. Remember, however, to keep updating empathy maps with new information as it is discovered through research.

· gather data straight from users — when users are directly filling in empathy maps, they can provide additional data and be a starting point for the user session summary. The interviewer may also uncover thoughts or feelings which may have otherwise remained unknown.

What to do before using an empathy map

Before you start the session with your team members, here are some things to remember:

· define your empathy map’s purpose — before creating an empathy map, you should clearly understand why there is a need for one. The two most typical reasons for creating one include getting a better understanding of your users or of a specific task or situation.

· conduct research — the best empathy maps are always drawn from real data. Get reports from interviews, diary studies, or qualitative surveys and once you have all the information you need, ask your team members to each read through the research before you begin the session.

· don’t do it on your own — while you could, it’s still a better idea to get a team together. Emphatic design works best in teams and it is essential that each team member crafts a product with the users in mind. Empathy mapping is a great exercise for your team where you all get together to discuss about your users. Be sure to invite all the core product team members to the session.

· ensure you set aside enough time for the sessions — while a session should typically last under an hour, it’s best to allot a bit of extra time to ensure there’s enough to prepare the session, conduct it, and summarize it at the end.

· have someone experienced moderate the session — the moderator’s role is to ask questions which will make the team members brainstorm user characteristics. They shouldn’t ask any leading questions, express any personal opinions, and they should ensure that everyone participates in the activity.

Building an empathy map

Let’s look at the steps you should follow to successfully create a valid empathy map:

1.define your scope and goals

a. what user or persona do you want to map? Will it be a persona or an individual user? Always start by creating an empathy map for each persona if you intend to map multiple personas.

b. what is your primary goal? Are you trying to align your team to the user? If so, ensure that everyone is present during the mapping process. If you an analyzing a transcript from an interview, set a clear scope and allocate your time in such a way that ensures you have time for mapping multiple interviews.

2. gather materials — your goal should dictate how you choose to create the empathy map. If you’re working with a team, a whiteboard, sticky notes, and markers will be very useful. Otherwise, if you are on your own, develop a system that works best for you. Remember that the easier it is to share everything with the team, the better.

3. gather research — put together all the research that will be used to build the map. Empathy mapping is a qualitative method, which means you will require qualitative data such as field studies, diary studies, user interviews, listening sessions, and qualitative surveys.

4. create sticky notes for each quadrant — once you’ve gathered all your research inputs, the team can begin the mapping process together. Everyone should examine the research individually and fill out sticky notes along the way which align to each of the four quadrants. Team members can then add their individual notes to the map on the whiteboard.

5. cluster and synthesize — team members go over the sticky notes together and cluster similar notes belonging to the same quadrant. These clusters should be named with themes representing each group (e.g. “research,” “validation from other,” etc.). This facilitates discussion and alignment among team members and helps everyone better understand the user.

Once you have finished clustering your empathy map, begin vocalizing and aligning as a team on your findings. Are there any data points which didn’t fit into any cluster? Are there repeated themes in every quadrant? Are there themes which exist in only one quadrant? Are there any gaps in your understanding?

6. polish your map — if you feel your map needs more details or you have some particular needs, add additional quadrants to your map (e.g. Goals) or increase existing quadrants’ specificity. Depending on what you hope to achieve with your empathy map, polish the output accordingly, while including the user, any remaining questions, the date, and the map’s version number. Go back to the empathy map and edit it as you gather more research or whenever you need guidance on UX decisions.