Empathy mapping is a way to create an innovative product or idea for a user’s needs. It involves using empathy and design thinking to research design ideas. A designer will first observe the user to understand the feelings and needs for a new design. In the slideshow above, an empathy map for Don Fertman is featured. In class, we watched an episode of Undercover Boss where Don, the chief development officer at Subway, went undercover. We were able to create a map of his feelings in what he hears, sees, and does. His feelings could then be translated into needs that help ease these emotions.
Next, we focused on the interview aspect of interview mapping. Imagine going into an airport and asking someone all about their travels, this is the task we had to complete. We had to come up with a series of questions to find out more about the airplane user. The questions wanted to help gather information on the user, understand the users actions, and dig for emotion. Creating a list of questions was helpful overall for the interview process, but the best interviews veer off of the question list and go more into depth on the details the user is providing. For example, if the user is asked why they are traveling and they respond “for work”, don’t move onto the next question. Instead of doing this one should ask, what kind of work do you do? They also could be asked, is this your first time traveling for work? These follow up questions use empathy to understand the user more deeply.
After listening to the Empathize section of the Design Thinking Handbook, I was able to practice my skills of empathy mapping further. We were asked to create the ideal wallet for a user. I first created a sketch off the top of my head, thinking of what users would need. After this, the empathy mapping started. I asked my roommate, Emma, to show me her wallet. I then asked her a series of questions I had prepared to understand her wallet use further. Again, I veered off of my question list a little as she showed me the various unique pieces in her wallet. After the interview, I wrote down a list of needs she would need in a new wallet to help solve her problems. This wallet I was designing was specific to her as a user because I used empathy to understand her needs. After figuring out the needs, I sketched a series of 5 different designs that could help improve her wallet use. Two of the designs involved having a wallet on the back of her phone, which was easy to use for her. The other designs used a regular wallet style with some twists. After finishing the designs, Emma was excited to see the new innovations and desperately wanted a prototype.
The Six Habits of Highly Empathetic People shows that having empathy allows designers to cultivate curiosity, challenge prejudices, step into another persons shoes, open up, inspire action, and develop a forever changing imagination.
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