Removing one’s point of view from the research process.
Written by Shannon Copfer Brace (User-centered designer and researcher, founder of the Empathy Jam), & Robert Strati (Co-founder of Echo. Humanizing AI products through Emotional Design and Research)
Anyone practicing or learning about user research these days has likely considered ‘empathy’ and the role it plays in a productive process. In most non-user-research circles, empathy is considered a “soft skill”, sometimes thought to be a “you have it or you don’t” kind of thing.
We’d like to make the case that not only is empathy a powerful tool for innovative, efficient, and impactful user research; it is one that any…
Journalist David French wrote a piece in the National Review a few years ago entitled “Dear Liberal Nerds: There’s a Difference Between Intelligence and Wisdom” in which he defined the “smart fool”. As he put it:
The smart fool reads piles of books, attends panel discussions until their ears bleed, and believes that makes them experts in complex human problems. The smart fool attends a speech in Cambridge and a speech in Geneva and thinks they’re well-traveled. The smart fool knows more facts than you and believes his superior grasp of facts makes your opinion meaningless.
In the idea of…
Rob Strati
Co-founder of Echo. Humanizing AI products through Emotional Design and Research https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertstrati/
