Milestone 2 : Empathy and Design
Overview
Week 4 : Empathy in User Experience
Week 5 : Writing with Empathy
Week 4 : Empathy in User Experience
What this post covers:
- How to build empathy as a designer
- Empathy in UX design & UX writing
- Why empathy is important to you as a UX Writer
- Week 4 Practice challenge
- Resource links for further learning
Let’s dive in!
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share in the feelings of someone else.
This is being able to see things from your users’ point of view by placing yourself in their shoes, and experiencing the thoughts and emotions they go through both before, during, and after the use of your product/service.
In user experience, empathy is a pretty big deal (as it should be in our everyday lives) and it’s a deliberate action that is built by carrying out user research to know more about your users.
If you don’t actually know your users, you can’t empathize because everything would be based on your assumptions.
Honestly, it is quite easy to make assumptions about situations and people. In fact, we all do this subconsciously as well as have biases that reflect in our words; actions; reactions; and eventually, our work.
The important thing is to always have it in mind that we have biases, and to keep testing out our assumptions to be sure the products that are designed prioritize the user. Don’t just assume you know what’s best.
Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Content Strategist and UX Expert
“Questioning assumptions means taking what you think is true about your users — for example, that they’ll appreciate your funny, quirky copy, or that they’re sitting at home comfortably scrolling your website on a big screen — and then asking, what if the opposite is true?”
“What if our joke comes at a bad time or triggers a bad memory? What if they’re trying to finish a task from their tablet at the airport on five percent battery life and bad wifi? Does this experience still work, or not?…”
By practicing empathy, it is no longer about you (designer) but about your users and this affects what you design and how you design.
It’s all about the user.
How to build empathy as a designer
In going through the Google UX Design course, I came across these steps to help build empathy and empathize with your users
Even though these steps were given for UX Designers, as a UX Writer, you are also a designer. Even more so, you are the user’s advocate and the only way you can do a good job of advocating for your users is when you actually know them.
That’s why UX writing requires you to be a team player. By being involved in the project from the get-go, and working together with researchers and designers, you become privy to insights about your users.
Empathy in UX design
One of the things I learned and love about empathy in UX design is designing for accessibility and inclusivity.
Accessibility is designing products that can be used by a wide range of people, including individuals who have visual, motor, auditory, speech, or cognitive disabilities.
Inclusive design is the practice of intentionally including the needs of users who likely experience exclusion in many aspects of their daily lives due to being part of an oppressed group or a statistical minority — Vale Querini, UX/Strategic Designer
These help stretch our ability to empathize with our users. But how does this way of thinking apply to UX writing?
Empathy in UX writing
- Understand that people have different language levels.
When writing copy, it’s nice to know that not everyone will understand certain words and expressions. It’s why one of the three major features of good UX writing is clarity. The words you choose to write should be as clear, as simple, and as easily understandable as possible.
- Stay up-to-date with language trends.
Once upon a time, it was the norm to group people into 2 genders: Male and Female. But in recent times, doing so may only serve to further exclude or alienate your users who don’t identify as either male or female. Taking deliberate action to keep up with our ever evolving language trends is a good way to avoid offending users and show that you care.
- Be aware of your tone
Whenever someone uses a product they go through different phases of emotion from excitement to worry and even frustration. Your copy can either help put them at ease or worsen the situation. How do you make them feel at each moment? Do your words come across as harsh or belittling? Is your copy humorous at points where users are getting frustrated or feeling bad? The tone your copy takes at different points should help make it a pleasant experience for your users.
Why empathy is important to you as a UX Writer
People interact not just with the visual design of a product, but with the content. It’s what guides them throughout their user journey.
If your copy lacks empathy, it will be immediately obvious to everyone affected.
I’ve found that in situations where I encounter such products, my decision to keep using it subconsciously boils down to ‘how badly do I really need to use the service?’ If it’s not as important, I abandon it.
Naturally, if someone feels that you do not care about them, the automatic reaction may be to get defensive. Like why should they care about you and what you’re offering? And sometimes, the UX copy is what makes or breaks the product.
Empathetic copy prevents this by connecting with users and helping to foster a bond with them.
Let’s Practice! 👩💻
Hi! Hope you enjoyed this week’s topic. Leave a clap if you did :)
At the end of every week, there are challenges for us to complete. Are you ready?
Week 4 Challenge
This week is about choosing a project for your portfolio. The project will be worked on over the remaining weeks of the publication.
Choosing your project
- Browse through your apps or websites to that one that gives you problem and needs a little fixing.
- For the sake of this publication, we will work on a single action flow (the part with the problem) and not the entire redesign. It could be a payment process, a sign-up process, a task that ends with a poor error message, etc
You may also choose to work on the same project I will be using as an example throughout the publication.
See you next week!
6 Additional resources you should check out!
⭐️ Sympathy vs Empathy in UX — Nielsen Norman Group
⭐️ One spoon of empathy — Daniela Goldgruber
⭐️ Understanding human behavior in UX writing — Anh Nguyen
⭐️ The psychology of UX writing — UX Pin
⭐️ Your Empathy Toolbox: Ensuring you design a product your users will need — Quentin Parizot
⭐️The Art and Design of Empathy in Everyday Life — Jason Kehrer (TedX Talks)
Hey there! Do you want to contribute to UX Writers Learn by sharing your experience or insight on any area of UX writing? Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn here. I’d love to hear from you.
