A powerful metaphor

Just like a ruthless forensic investigator in the world of Hannibal, all designers are expected to have empathy. The year that the popular TV series came out, was the same year I started my Industrial Design degree. Working through the stress of first year studies while watching people being killed and eaten in artistic ways formed a particular catharsis for me.

Hannibal is an American psychological horror/thriller series for NBC that follows the relationship between forensic investigator Will Graham and cannibalistic serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter. Graham is a talented criminal profiler who utilises his abilities of ‘interpreting the evidence’ to get into the minds of serial killers and truly understand their motives and behaviours. The first season is arguably the best and only one worth discussing as the show truly takes a turn for the bizarre in later seasons.

Apart from the more gruesome aspects of the show, what interested me was how the investigation relied heavily on one agent’s ability to empathise with killers. In each episode, Graham is taken to a different crime scene in order to empathise with the killer and relive the murders to draw insights on the killer’s behaviour. The more I watched, the more I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the techniques we were using to empathise with the user in design.

‘Empathy’ has definitely become an overused word in the design world, it is seen as a requisite for good design and the basis for user-centered design. It makes sense, in order for you to design for another person with differing needs and context from your own, you first need to understand their emotions, needs and motivations.

“To state things simply: empathizing allows designers to understand users better. Empathizing helps designers to look deeper into situations in a way that helps them to think and create solutions for problems.”
— Maddy Osman for Icons8

Although designing an app for a user and hunting down a cannibalistic serial killer are definitely two different concepts, watching this show while learning about user-centered design for the first time formed a powerful metaphor in my mind and is still one that I draw on today in my design practice. Let me share where I am going with this:

True empathy can help you gain insights you wouldn’t get otherwise

In Hannibal, Graham is able to decipher valuable insights about the serial killers being hunted by the FBI simply through radical empathy. By viewing the crime scene from the killer’s perspective, he is often able to conclude their motive, current emotions and profile their possible next victim.

When studying any area of design that utilises a user-centered methodology, empathy is a word you will hear a lot. Having true empathy within design, involves getting down to the user’s level and talking to them in order to truly put yourself in their shoes and view the problems they are facing through their perspective.

This is not an easy task and can be even more challenging if the people you are designing a product for come from a very different background to your own. When done successfully though, adding a little empathy to a design process can leave you with powerful new insights on your user that you would have never been able to see on your own.

Empathy is becoming particularly important when it comes to design for accessibility. Everyone will experience a permanent, temporary or situational impairment in their lives, whether it is from old age or simply a sprained ankle. Understandably users with disabilities make up a large percentage of the user group for any product, not having their needs met in the design phase could mean they are unable to use the product at all.

Empathy definitely plays a part in helping accessibility to become a more common step in every designer’s toolbox. Through empathy, designers are able to understand and perceive issues that are not within their current realm of sensory perception.

The importance of context immersion

Graham has a tough task when it comes to investigating the crime scenes, he has to decipher all the clues he needs from the crime scene alone, without interviewing the murderers. He has to place himself within the context in order to get into the minds of the killers.

Like any good crime scene investigation, design research often involves context immersion. Context immersion is when a designer positions themselves in the context being designed for in order to learn about the full system and stakeholders surrounding the problem being researched. This step is more common in Industrial design than UX design.

Physically being in the user’s context means gaining true empathy through being with people in their real settings and doing the things they would normally do. This kind of deep immersion gives a designer ‘informed intuition’ that we take back with us to design solutions.

Empathy is not a tool but an ability

Finally, the most important lesson learnt from hours spent watching gruesome murders taking place is that empathy is not a tool but an ability.

On the FBI team, Graham is the only man who can do what he does. Without him, the criminal investigations cannot seem to gather the insights needed quickly enough to catch the killers. His method of ‘interpreting the evidence’ cannot be replicated, his ability is a rare one.

Although it is nice to think that all designers have the ability to harness radical empathy in their work, it is a tall order to expect as a given of the role. It should not be a set expectation of all designers as guarantee of a good product.

Donald Norman himself, who first coined the term ‘user-centered design’ actually disagrees with the focus on empathy within design. According to him, empathising with a small set of users will not help designers to solve the larger issues affecting the masses.

“I approve of the spirit behind the introduction of empathy into design, but I believe the concept is impossible, and even if possible, wrong.”
— Donald Norman

He advocates instead for a more ‘human-centered design’ process, one where designers actually go out and understand the greater issues at hand. Believing that the conscious mind often has little empathy for its own subconscious, Norman states that relying on the human brain to infallibly utilise empathy within design is misguided.

I agree with Norman on the most part but do believe that some people are more skilled at empathy within design than others. Just like Will Graham, some of us are able to use this ability to its full extent but it should not be expected of all designers. The other FBI agents weren’t able to channel the kind of empathy needed for the investigation once Graham was gone.

“This is my design”
— Graham whenever he gains true insight into a killer’s perspective

Empathy is a wonderful thing, it can help you to design a successful delivery app with an edge on the competition or even hunt down a serial killer. It is an important skill to be utilised when gathering user insights and designing for accessibility, and should not be overlooked. Although useful, not all designers can be expected to be Will Grahams and shouldn’t have to.

Thank you for taking the time to engage with my thoughts. If you enjoyed the article or have more thoughts on the topic, please give me a clap or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject matter. If you want to read more about how design (particularly UX design) connects to the world around us, please give me a follow on Medium. Otherwise we can always connect over LinkedIn.

Sources:

1. Krishan, K. 2020. Accessibility in UX: The case for radical empathy. [Online]. Available: https://uxmag.com/articles/accessibility-in-ux-the-case-for-radical-empathy
2. Lubana, P. 2021. Practicing radical empathy in product design. [Online]. Available: https://uxdesign.cc/a-case-for-radical-empathy-in-product-design-4afe82007b7f
3. Mesut, J. 2018. The dilemma of designers’ empathy delusions. [Online]. Available: https://medium.com/shapingdesign/the-dilemma-of-designers-empathy-delusions-a61f0663deaf
4. Norman, D. 2019. Why I don’t believe in empathic design. [Online]. Available: https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/perspectives/leadership-insights/why-i-dont-believe-in-empathic-design-don-norman/
5. Osman, M. 2019. Empathy in UX Design: What It Is and Why It’s Important. [Online]. Available: https://uxplanet.org/empathy-in-ux-design-what-it-is-and-why-its-important-3f6a8919ef10