The role of empathy in user research and interaction design
When designing with empathy in mind, we increase our chances of meeting user needs and expectations by uncovering deeper insights. But what is empathy, really — and where does it fit into our research?
In the 1990s, companies started to realise that incorporating customer feedback merely from questionnaires was falling short and not quite enough for success anymore. Undertaking more in-depth qualitative research to inform and inspire design choices was the logical next step.
Hence, becoming more sensitive to users and being able to understand them better started creating a buzz in the industry, introducing more holistic, empathetic approaches into the game. Still, even as the idea of design requiring an element of empathy was brought to the foreground, the definition and “application” of it in a creative context remained fairly vague.
Fast-forward to our current times, where the importance of empathy in design is increasing with the growing ambitions of designers to keep in line with user expectations. Rather than simply ensuring usability, “new goals of interaction design include agency, fulfilment, joy, connectedness, empowerment, and social justice,” to quote the authors of a 2018 study.
To get a better sense of empathy in general, it might be helpful to go through its elements and place in crafting user experiences. For additional context, I have also included a short framework for research and design to serve as a starting point. These are based on a combination of design, psychology, and neuroscience research papers, as empathy seems difficult to pin down by one discipline alone.
Empathy vs Sympathy
Before diving in, it might be a good idea to quickly clarify the differences between sympathy and empathy to dispel one lingering confusion.
Sympathy involves understanding others’ feelings from our own perspective, and it entails a certain distance. It is an acknowledgement of others’ suffering and position, but without identifying with their emotions or situation. In short: it is not very useful, because the goal of design is to empower users, rather than (virtually) tap them on the back with a glance of pity.
A more active approach is empathy, the ability to imagine or experience feelings. Put in a UX context, empathy basically takes sympathy a step further in that you “mirror and share the user’s expressions, needs, and motivations”, going by Nielsen Norman Group’s definition. This helps us understand their context, frustrations, limitations, reasoning and goals to paint a more comprehensive picture and build better solutions.
For a more psychological answer, the animated version of Brené Brown’s TED talk on empathy highlights the differences:
The five core concepts of empathy
The authors of a 2021 research paper reviewed studies related to empathy in design to identify core theories and showcase potential ways to weave them into creative work. Based on their analysis, they proposed five concepts that underpin empathy in this more user-centric context.
1) Empathetic understanding of others and their experiences relates to knowing how to put yourself in the user’s shoes. It is a type of sharpened, objective awareness that allows for more in-depth insights by shedding your subjective mindset in favour of the user’s point of view.
This is the overarching theme of empathetic knowledge as a whole, so the remaining four concepts are used to chunk these into smaller segments of by how they are applied.
The external aspects related to empathy are empathetic design research and action.
2) Empathetic design research comprises techniques used to understand others. In-depth user diaries, various ethnographic research methods, and designers testing user experiences on themselves are examples of possible methods here. These provide the basic foundation for grasping interactions.
3) Empathetic design actions are the user-centered activities that designers carry out in their work. These serve to generate solutions from the user’s point of view by considering their decisions and actions. In other words, this concept builds on design research.
The internal aspects are empathetic orientation and mental processes.
4) Empathetic orientation is a preference for objective, human-centered findings that allow us to understand others better. These can entail:
- avoiding judgement when observing other people,
- respecting their emotional responses,
- valuing others’ input into the design project,
- and being inclusive and transparent towards others.
Taken together, they further serve to uncover the needs and desires of users.
5) Empathetic mental processes are mostly studied in psychology, but they exist in design all the same. (We are all human, after all!) You could consider this a kind of self-reflection, that happens as you are observing and trying to understand users’ experiences in an objective way. This part is slightly meta and subtle, but it still adds a layer that shapes your perception by becoming conscious of your own empathy.
Empathy as an ability
Onto the good news: generally speaking, humans are hard-wired for empathy and as such, it is an innate ability we possess. Nonetheless, it’s a skill that has to be constantly honed if you don’t want to get rusty.
Grasping empathy may also be more difficult for some, depending on individual differences such as traits and neurodiversity. Adopting it to different settings (such as UX) might also require some time to fine-tune — but practice makes perfect.
Empathy underpins the design process as we go from addressing practical issues to considering personal experiences and contexts. Apart from acting as a quality of the design process, researcher Deana McDonagh defined empathy as
“the intuitive ability to identify with other people’s thoughts and feelings — their motivations, emotional and mental models, values, priorities, preferences, and inner conflicts.”
This ability can also be enhanced via training in research skills and practical, hands-on experience dealing with users. Although developing empathy is an individual quest, a team environment can also foster this by being open to discussions and thereby refining understanding.
Affective and cognitive types of empathy
Psychology distinguishes two components of empathy, and at least a mild awareness of both is beneficial to sharpen your view and insights.
Affective (or emotional) empathy is when we are having an emotional response to another’s emotional state. In everyday life, this can be an automatic action, such as smiling back at someone when they smile at you. Taking part in the user’s emotional journey as they go about interacting with a product is a more design-specific case.
Being able to understand and reflect on this emotion by shifting your perspective is what we call cognitive empathy. Imagining someone else’s situation and being able to identify with their feelings is a way of tapping into this kind of process.
Sometimes a third type, called compassionate empathy or empathetic action, is brought into the conversation. This is when you are moved to take action and help, rather than simply understanding others or sharing their feelings.
The four phases of empathy in design & research
An article from 2009 went on to define a framework based on processes of empathy. Consisting of four phases, it is based on the principle that a designer “steps into the life of the user, wanders around for a while” and leaves with a deeper understanding of this specific person.
For the record, they used the word “designer” as an umbrella term referring to all people involved in product idea generation. These metaphoric phases are:
1) Discovery: The designer approaches the user with the aim of exploring their world, situation, and experience. How much empathy the designer can achieve here largely depends on their level of curiosity, and vice-versa.
2) Immersion: The designer is pulled into the user’s world and absorbs knowledge (from qualitative research) without judging. This phase requires time, even though it is often not perceived as relevant, since it is not actively solution-focused.
3) Connection: In order to create understanding and resonate with the user, the designer connects with them by recalling their own memories and experiences.
4) Detachment: Finally, the designer detaches from this emotional connection to reflect, and shift into a “helpful mode,” deploying new insights from the increased understanding they obtained.
This process can be used to structure design activities, and it can be applied in various ways, ranging from one exercise to planning out the whole project over a lengthier timeframe.
Practising empathy in UX
Empathy allows us to challenge our own assumptions and design with intent, so it plays a key role in creating a holistic understanding of the user experience. Qualitative research methods such as user interviews and diary studies help tap into user mental models, behaviours, motivations, goals, and concerns to get us started.
Empathy maps can then help to summarise what each user says, thinks, does and feels in a more visual format. Larger-scale journey maps can also illustrate the overall experience, but how you mix and match these, depending on time or budget constraints is unique to each scenario.
Recording usability sessions and sharing clips with stakeholders can also foster empathy in your audience. By showing that these user experiences are real, and that there is no abstract guesswork involved in your findings and recommendations. Putting a face to a name (and the user) can “humanise” them, thereby creating a connection in a subconscious way.
The short version
To recap, sympathy differs from empathy in that it takes a more distanced and less involved approach. Empathy, on the other hand, is based on being able to change perspective and “walk the user’s walk” as and when needed. It is both the quality of the design process and the ability of the designer to understand user experiences from a 360-degree view.
By extracting insights from users’ thoughts and feelings, we can uncover their latent needs and design sensible, well-rounded solutions that go beyond focusing on usability only. Finally, the silver lining: the more you practice, the better you get.
Thanks for reading! ⭐
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References & Credits:
- Brené Brown on Empathy by RSA
- Sympathy vs. Empathy in UX by Sarah Gibbons
- Hess, J. L., & Fila, N. D. (2016). The manifestation of empathy within design: findings from a service-learning course. CoDesign, 12(1–2), 93–111.
- Kouprie, M., & Visser, F. S. (2009). A framework for empathy in design: stepping into and out of the user’s life. Journal of Engineering Design, 20(5), 437–448.
- Lachner, F., Schneider, H., Simon, L., & Butz, A. (2018, September). Nurturing empathy between UX design teams and users in digitally-mediated user research. In Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 273–285).
- Surma-Aho, A., & Hölttä-Otto, K. (2022). Conceptualization and operationalization of empathy in design research. Design Studies, 78, 101075.
- Images by storyset on Freepik
