Now that you have already defined a problem, you’re asking yourself how to best understand the people — how do you put yourself in their shoes? There are many ways to understand people, afterall we all have the same experiences in one way or the other. So why don’t you just go ahead and write down all the things you think “the people” need. What issues do you think they are having? How do you think they are feeling? How do you think they interact with your product? What do you think their behavior and attitude would be towards your product or the problem you have identified?
Now, if you’re done with this step, take your list and tear it apart. If you truly want to understand the people and want your product or solution to be successful, DON’T ASSUME. You should first understand that Human Centered Design is widely known for its “obsessive focus on understanding the perspective of the person who experiences a problem, their needs, and whether the solution that has been designed for them is truly meeting their needs effectively or not.” Therefore, if you are sitting somewhere on your desk and assuming what the people feel and experience, you’re gambling with the success of your solution.
This is where empathy comes into play. Empathy is about “understanding the problem by immersing yourself in the community that will be affected by your design”, meaning that you’ll spend time talking to the people, observing how they interact with the environment, and consulting experts. Thus, you need to adopt a learner’s mindset towards understanding the people. Ask questions, try to see the world through their eyes, feel what they feel, and put aside your own assumptions.
Now that we have put aside our assumptions, let’s step in the shoes of the people.
Assume a Beginner’s Mindset
What does it mean to assume a beginner’s mindset? When you are designing a product or solution, you should know that you’re designing for people who are unfamiliar with your product. As a designer, you’ll be tempted to make a product or solution that shows sophistication and pure genius. However, your users need you to simplify your solution and make it as efficient as possible. Imagine someone who has never used a Canon camera before and stumbles on one. Immediately, they will see the different images and icons on the camera that guide them in their journey to discover this strange device. Without these icons and more, even professionals would find it hard to navigate through the device. Thus, when designing your product or solution, assume that your users will have no idea of how to use it then design it in a way that simplifies their experience.
Ask! What? How? Why?
We’ve already established the necessity of directly talking to the people and observing how their environment works. But how exactly do you do that? Ask “what?” by recording the details of what has happened, has been said, and has been observed. Second, analyze how the people do what they do, how they interact with their environment and how they respond to input. Remember the assumptions we tore apart? In this next step we need them. The only difference is that we now have reliable data to use in making our assumptions. Given all that you have observed and recorded, now you ask “why?” — make educated assumptions about the people’s emotions and motivations.
Engage with Extreme Users
Extreme users will make up a small fraction of all the users but if you can satisfy extreme users you can satisfy everyone else. This is because all the issues related to your product will become magnified with extreme users’ experience. They’ll encounter defects more often given specific circumstances and concerns that other users might not be comfortable pointing out. Thus, it will be easier to identify pain points and frustrations and guide you towards improving your users’ experience with your platform or solution. Once you identify and fix these small issues with extreme, the rest of your users or target users will have a seamless experience.
Keep in mind that there are endless combinations to understanding your users. So make sure, to switch up as many techniques and approaches as possible until you find the perfect combination.