Design thinking: the five design thinking process - user empathy

I have previously talked about the subject of design thinking, the mechanism by which it works, and the steps followed by it.

In this section, I will talk about the first steps of Design Thinking.

1- Empathy

Empathy is defined by NNG as the ability to fully understand a user's feelings and needs, reflect that on your personality and interactions, and then share their expressions, needs, and motives.

Empathy allows us to understand not only users' immediate frustrations, but also their hopes, fears, abilities, limitations, logic, and goals.

It allows us to deepen our understanding of the user and create solutions to their problems that will not only solve the need they require, but will effectively improve the lives of users of the product by eliminating unnecessary pain or friction.

Rather than simply designing a regular, accessible website, the practice of empathy is to allow a test sample to use the website under certain testable and controllable conditions (for example, blindfolded), in order to complete a specific task required of the user across the site (such as searching for a specific button within the site According to the user's intuition and not through direct guidance) that is, working to hide one of the senses that the user uses in his interaction with the product.

The test sample response could be as follows:

"I'm having a hard time finding my way around the site."

"This is much more difficult than I thought it would be."

"I will defend my opinion of the changes that should be made to the site."

Empathy is often the reaction (in the form of grief or pity) to another person's hardship or misfortune. However, unlike the intended meaning of empathy, there remains a sense of distance between you (as a user experience designer) and the other person (the need or problem you are being asked to solve), and that their plight is not something you personally relate to or expect to share.

Don't perceive that you have user problems (and certainly you are not sharing those problems now), as much as you realize that some users have problems.

Therefore, this first step is important in creating full empathy and understanding for the user or the owner of the problem that is being worked on by applying Design Thinking through it. He used to consider it your own problem and that you yourself suffer from this problem and live with it in order to have a complete understanding of the emotional and psychological aspect surrounding the problem and the real motives for solving it.

By doing research and gathering information that will help us build this configuration, we will have built our initial conclusions about the problem.

How to exercise empathy in the user experience

Now let's see how the concept of empathy is implemented within user experience design.

I am, the first step that you must do is to work to put yourself in the place of the user who suffers from the problem and to abandon personal assumptions.

Qualitative methods, such as user interviews, cognitive mapping, diary studies, and user behavior allow us to delve deeper into their behaviors, motivations, and interests.

The use of the open question method is an important point when asking users to explain their problems and not trying to put them and define them within one frame. They often reveal amazing mental models and strategies for solving problems they had in mind. They are ultimately the stakeholders who suffer from the main problem and coexist. With her for a long time, hopes, and fears. For example:

• What makes you happy? Instead of Are you happy?
• How has your family affected you? Instead of, are you close to your family?
• What makes you stronger? Instead of telling me your weaknesses.

Modifying the questions that are asked to users in the research stage and first identifying the problem helps bring you closer to users and their sense that you are close to them and try hard to help them and address their problems.

References:

https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/design-thinking-the-five-design-thinking-process-11dba44958bb

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/sympathy-vs-empathy-ux/