Understanding How Our Identities Shape Empathy and Design

In a world where design increasingly intersects with the lives of diverse individuals, empathy has become more than a buzzword—it’s a fundamental principle guiding how we create meaningful experiences for others. In a recent guest lecture on Empathy and Useful Frictions at Georgetown University’s Communications, Culture, and Technology (CCT) Graduate Program, I explored with the students how empathy shapes user experiences (UX) and drives thoughtful design decisions.?

First off, this was one of the highlights of my year--fifteen years ago I dreamed of attending the CCT program as a student, and now here I am giving a guest lecture about the things I've learned--it was a full circle moment for me. It's been lovely to build a deeper relationship with Dr. Evan Barba at the program this past year as we've been designing Playable Systems--experiences using game design to understand the systems around us better.

Empathy in UX: Designing Beyond Functionality

Empathy in UX goes beyond addressing just the functional needs of users. It involves understanding their emotional and cognitive states, which ultimately shape how they interact with a product or service. By stepping into the shoes of users, we can identify their pain points and motivations, allowing us to design more intuitive and meaningful interactions. Empathy isn’t just a “nice-to-have”—it’s critical to human-centered design. When designers are attuned to the emotional needs of users, they can create experiences that feel supportive, not just functional, fostering deeper connections between users and products.

What Are Useful Frictions?: Enhancing Thoughtful User Experiences

One way empathy manifests in design is through the concept of Useful Frictions—intentional pauses in the user journey that encourage reflection and more thoughtful actions. These frictions, such as confirmation screens, safety prompts, or empathy-driven nudges, guide users to think before they act, which enhances decision-making, trust, and emotional connection.

For instance, a friction could prompt users to reconsider sending a harshly worded message by asking them to reflect on how it might make the recipient feel. Or, in e-commerce, a friction could suggest donating abandoned cart items to a charity, helping users make more compassionate choices. By integrating these thoughtful pauses, designers can create experiences that go beyond convenience, fostering genuine engagement and trust with users.

Transforming Empathy into Action: From Reflection to Compassionate Behavior

While empathy helps designers understand user needs, useful frictions serve as mechanisms to transform that empathy into tangible, compassionate actions. These intentional design elements help users pause, connect emotionally, and consider the broader impact of their choices. For example, after reading a news story about a humanitarian crisis, a prompt could encourage users to donate or take action, converting their empathy into meaningful support. Similarly, mental health apps might ask users to reflect on their emotional state before proceeding with decisions, promoting thoughtful self-care.

By embedding useful frictions into the user journey, we give users the space to act on their empathy, encouraging them to make choices that benefit themselves and others. This shift from passive understanding to active compassion can significantly enhance user experiences, aligning emotional intelligence with digital design.

Exploring Positionality and its Role in Building Empathy

A core element that emerged during the discussion was the importance of positionality—understanding our own identities and perspectives and how they influence our interactions, decisions, and designs.

While the concept of intersectionality—the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender—has gained significant traction, positionality offers an equally critical, though distinct, lens through which to understand identity. Exploring positionality allows individuals to reflect on their identities and recognize how these influence their perspectives and actions. In UX and beyond, this reflection is key to fostering empathy and creating designs that genuinely respect and support users’ diverse experiences.

Defining Positionality vs. Intersectionality

Before diving deeper into why positionality matters, it’s essential to clarify how it differs from intersectionality.

• Intersectionality, coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, refers to how different social identities—such as race, gender, and class—interact and overlap to create unique experiences of oppression and privilege. It focuses on the cumulative impact of these intersecting identities in shaping one’s social and political life. Intersectionality is particularly powerful in understanding the compounded effects of discrimination and how multiple identities interact to create unique experiences of marginalization.
• Positionality, on the other hand, refers to an individual’s personal identity, perspective, and context in relation to others, as well as the world around them. It asks individuals to reflect on how their race, gender, class, age, ability status, and other facets of identity shape their worldview, assumptions, and biases. Importantly, positionality also emphasizes how our identities influence our relationships with power, privilege, and authority.

Where intersectionality offers a framework for analyzing how identities overlap, positionality is more introspective, helping individuals better understand their own perspectives and biases. In design, this self-awareness is critical in avoiding assumptions that could inadvertently alienate or harm users.

The Role of Positionality in Empathy and Design

Empathy plays a pivotal role in design, particularly in UX, where understanding and anticipating users’ needs, emotions, and challenges is crucial. However, true empathy starts with an awareness of self—our own positionality.

Why does this matter in design?

1. Recognizing Biases: Every designer brings their own set of assumptions to the table, shaped by their identity and lived experiences. Without awareness of positionality, these biases can inadvertently shape decisions, leading to designs that are less inclusive or even harmful to certain groups. Reflecting on positionality allows designers to recognize these blind spots and adjust their approaches to better serve diverse users.
2. Building Empathy for Users: By understanding one’s own positionality, designers are better equipped to step into the shoes of others. Empathy isn’t about imposing one’s perspective on others but about recognizing where our perspectives diverge from users’ experiences. For instance, a designer’s experience of navigating a digital platform may be vastly different from that of someone from a different cultural background or with different physical abilities. By reflecting on positionality, designers can better account for these differences and create more thoughtful, user-centered designs.
3. Designing Useful Frictions: Useful frictions are intentional pauses or moments of resistance within a user journey that prompt users to reflect before taking action. These frictions—such as confirmation screens or empathy-driven prompts—help foster thoughtful, empathetic decision-making. A designer who understands their own positionality can more thoughtfully design these moments to account for users’ emotional and cognitive needs. By considering how different users approach decision-making, they can create frictions that feel supportive, rather than obstructive, enhancing trust and user satisfaction.

Exploring Our Positionality: A Necessary Step in Empathy Building

Reflecting on our positionality involves asking questions about our identities, experiences, and how they shape our worldview. During the guest lecture, I introduced the concept of the Wheel of Positionality, developed by Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel, as a tool for reflecting on identity. This framework invites individuals to examine various facets of their identity—race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, ability, age, citizenship, and more—and consider how these aspects influence their interactions with others.

Key reflective questions posed in the Wheel of Positionality include:

• What identities do I think about most often? Why?
• What identities do I think about least often? Why?
• Which identities have the strongest effect on how I see myself?
• Which identities have the greatest effect on how I may be treated in society?

By exploring these questions, student’s gained insight into the “water we swim in”—the often invisible factors that shape how we view the world. This self-reflection is essential in empathy-building, as it helps us better understand the lenses through which we perceive others, and how those lenses may differ from others’ experiences.

The Power of Positionality in Design

Understanding positionality empowers designers and creators to take a more thoughtful, inclusive approach to their work. When we explore how our identities shape our perspectives, we are better equipped to:

• Avoid Assumptions: We become more aware of our biases and the assumptions we may unintentionally impose on our users.
• Design with Empathy: By acknowledging the differences in perspective between ourselves and our users, we can design experiences that respect and respond to those differences, leading to more human-centered, empathetic solutions.
• Create Inclusive Experiences: Positionality helps us ensure that we are not just designing for users who share our own identity or worldview but for all users, particularly those whose experiences may differ significantly from our own.

Conclusion: Why Positionality Matters Now More Than Ever

In today’s increasingly diverse and global world, reflecting on our positionality is critical—not just for designers but for anyone looking to foster empathy and understanding in their work. Whether we’re creating digital experiences, leading teams, or engaging in social justice work, recognizing how our identities shape our perspectives allows us to move beyond assumptions and connect more deeply with others.

Empathy starts with self-awareness. By taking the time to explore our positionality, we lay the foundation for truly empathetic, thoughtful actions—whether in design, leadership, or daily interactions. In doing so, we create space for more inclusive, compassionate experiences that acknowledge and honor the full spectrum of human diversity.

Key Takeaways:

• Positionality focuses on self-reflection, helping us understand how our identities shape our worldview, while intersectionality examines how overlapping social identities contribute to oppression and privilege.
• Reflecting on positionality allows us to recognize biases and design with empathy, ensuring that our decisions are inclusive and responsive to users’ needs.
• In UX, empathy-driven designs and useful frictions help create moments of thoughtfulness and emotional connection, leading to more human-centered and supportive user experiences.

Exploring your positionality is an important step in creating a more empathetic, inclusive world—both in design and beyond.