Adaptation of Empathy Mapping to Mobile Test
“Empathy builds trust, get a chance to gain the sympathy of your users.”
If we want our users to leave happily while navigating through our application and afterwards, I think we should be able to understand them as much as possible and empathize for this.
In this article, while testing Trendyol Mobile Applications, I will explain how I try to understand our users who will use our applications and what steps I follow accordingly.
Seeing user attitudes and behaviors on an empathy map helps me immensely. In this way, I can easily adapt to understanding end users.
The content of the article is as follows;
1.What is empathy mapping?
2. What do the fields on the empathy map correspond to in the Mobile Test?
- The Says Quadrant
- The Thinks Quadrant
- The Does Quadrant
- The Feels Quadrant
3. Additional Info: How Many Users are Needed? ⚠️
4. How do I use the empathy map for the Mobile Test?
5. What are the benefits of creating an empathy map while doing the Mobile Test?
First of all, I would like to talk about why it is important to understand the user’s point of view and why such tools are used.
The user perspective is a real trend to focus on the perspective of our end users as they are the people our software was designed for. This approach to behavior is a way to improve our testing as we test our software, and therefore also to improve communication between roles involved in software development.
The user perspective ultimately helps us to meet all the requirements of our customers more accurately and easily. That’s why I use the empathy map tool to understand our users.
1. What is empathy mapping?
The empathy map allows us to understand what our users are thinking emotionally when performing an action and what they want the functional context of our product to be. In this way, it allows us to get to know our users.
Traditional empathy maps are divided into 4 quadrants, with the user or person in the middle.
Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels
Empathy maps give us a glimpse of what a user as a whole wants, and I should point out that this map doesn’t have to be chronological or sequential.
There is also a Pain and Gain area in empathy mapping, but I do not use it. If you want more information about this, you can click here.
2. What do the fields on the empathy map correspond to in the Mobile Test?
The Says Quadrant
Contains what the user said out loud. Ideally, he or she speaks his/her thoughts verbatim and directly.
“I’m hooked on this app because I’ve never had a bad experience.”
“I want a reliable app.”
“I don’t understand what to do in this app.”
The Thinks Quadrant
Captures what the user thinks throughout the experience.
- What occupies the user’s thoughts?
- What is important to the user?
It is possible to have the same content in both Saying and Thinking. However, pay special attention to what users think, but may not want to voice them.
“How do I use this app/feature?”
“Am I the only one who didn’t understand this feature?”
The Does Quadrant
Covers the actions that the user has taken. According to the research, what is the user physically doing? How does the user do this?
- Refreshes the page several times.
- Searches to compare prices.
- Waits for the page to load.
- While navigating the application, if there is a phone call or an SMS, he/she takes the application to the background.
The Feels Quadrant
Is the emotional state of the wearer and is often represented as an adjective and a short sentence for context.
Ask yourself: What worries the user? What is the user excited about? What does the user think about the experience?
Impatient: Pages load very slowly.
Confused: Too many conflicting prices.
Worried: Will the app drain my battery?
Happy: The application is very comfortable to use, pleasing to the eye.
3. Additional Info: How Many Users are Needed? ⚠️
Of course, it is not possible for us to do this with all our users. I will explain the formula I use. (This formula is not related to the empathy map.)
where N is the total number of usability problems in the design and L is the proportion of usability problems discovered while testing a single user.
The best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford. In a research study from 2000, Jakob Nielsen and Tom Landauer found that you only need 5 users to test your application in order to identify 75–99% of all usability problems.
You only need 3 to 5 users to identify the majority of usability issues.
After the fifth user, you are wasting your time by observing the same findings repeatedly but not learning much new.
4. How do I use the empathy map for the Mobile Test?
- I’m creating an Empathy Map before an important feature or directly after development, or referencing it from what I’ve already created.
- I draw a grid and label the four quadrants at a time with Says, Does, Feels, and Thinks.
- Based on the feature I will test, I create scenarios accordingly.
What would 3 or 5 hypothetical user say, think, do, and feel about this feature?
- I record what users or internal customers think. For each observation I use a sticky note and place it in the appropriate quadrant.
- If there are clusters of related sticky notes within each quadrant, I note them down.
- Finally, I ask the questions of what needs of the users we tried to meet with this feature, how did this feature affect our application, and I compare it with the next feature.
After creating the empathy map, there are some testing techniques I use to keep my tests smooth. One of them is the Heuristic Test Strategy.
For more information about Heuristic Test Strategy, you can refer to my previous article below.
After creating the empathy map, the first thing I do is to cover the basics of testing on any feature with below questions.
From the testing perspective;
🔸Does the app crash with this feature?
🔸How is the app response on different devices?
🔸How is the UI and UX experience specific to this feature?
🔸Does the feature respond as it should when the internet speed is low?
I’m testing the checks of these questions. Below you can see the other test items.
5. What are the benefits of creating an empathy map while doing the Mobile Test?
The benefits of empathy maps that we have created to understand our users are not limited to the following, but some of them are;
- It frees us from prejudice and provides perspective to our development and testing from the user’s point of view.
- Allows us to discover weak spots in our tests.
- Reveals user needs that the user may not even be aware of.
- It allows us to understand what drives the behavior of users.
- It leads us to meaningful innovations.
- It allows us to share user needs and,
- It helps us make decisions.
- Ensures that the application you are testing is user-friendly.
You can create more than one empathy map and work separately for each feature. I would even recommend doing so. In most features, the things you will encounter may be the same, but even for one thing that is different, it is worth creating.
I adapted the empathy map to Mobile Test to capture the user’s point of view. This tool can be used not only in mobile testing, but also in many areas.
Wherever you are in the software cycle, you can adapt it to your business. It helps you be very active on the path to success and gain a more realistic view.
I like to research such tools in order to understand the person I am communicating with and I try to apply them to my work. I see a lot of benefit from this, I hope you will too.
Please do not hesitate for any questions or suggestions.
