The Cycle of Empathic Design
Photo Credit: keypersonofinfluence.com
Design is everywhere ranging from the least to the greatest designs. We see the concept of design in our everyday life such as designing a class timetable for the school year/semester to designing huge projects like architectural designs, websites/apps interfaces etc. The process of design is one that no matter how much and how hard one tries, it is just not perfect in the eyes of others and this is where the concept of empathy surfaces
What Is Empathy?
According to Merriam-Webstar’s dictionary, empathy is the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions. This definition brings one to the knowledge that empathy is a concept that involves the experience and basically the reaction of others.
What is Empathic Design?
Empathic design is therefore not just designing a system for people to use someday but also about including people i into every stage of your design process i.e a design driven by the user(s). This is what empathic design seeks to achieve. Having established these facts, there are 3 important steps in Empathic design process which I would prefer to call the cycle of empathic design.
- User Research
Research is the first stage of any design process. This is the stage where all the major facts and needed for design are established. It is the stage where you put things needed for the design together. It’s noteworthy that not all the facts are established in this stage but the basic and major facts are. Research can be done in so many different ways, some of which are:
-Using your initiative to know what should be included in the design
-Searching on the internet
-Asking people(acting/presumed users) about what they would like to be included in the designs
-Checking similar designs for things that seems to be constant in them etc.
This stage is the most basic stage and is very important in the design process
2. Design and Prototyping
This is the next stage of the design process and it involves putting the gathered facts in the previous stage (research) into work. This stage doesn't assume that the facts gathered are complete and okay in themselves but it makes use of what seems to be on ground. The designer makes use of the facts in drafting our and designing what is called a prototype. A prototype is a model of what something should look like. This stage is all about bringing life to the design that was previously just an idea
3. Evaluation
This stage involves bringing the designed prototype to the table for checking. Here many things happen: Some portion of the design is appreciated, others are being criticized. In this stage, the designer sees his faults and perfections all at the same time and a clearer picture of the design is revealed to the designer. This stage reveals the fact that the design is not okay all in itself and the process is repeated again. It's like the example of the timetable I gave. Most University students will understand that when examinations get closer, a draft of the timetable is released and then students are allowed to make their complaints as regards their satisfaction with it. Students check for the most comfortable idea they can imagine and make their complaints and then the process of design is repeated once more.
In empathic design, the process can never be repeated enough but there has to come to a point where maximum satisfaction is obtained and the process has to be stopped. In some designs however, the process never stops for example, the design of mobile apps on our smartphone. The design is never satiable because as time goes on, the reviews made by the users make the designer go over the design process again. That’s the reason why updates are continuously released over a period of time.
