In Design Thinking, Why is Empathy Important? – BRIDGEGOOD — Design For Social Good Nonprofit Organization

Design Thinking is an approach to problem solving that engages a person to understand and empathize with user needs, identifying/re-defining problems, brainstorming ideas, and test those ideas using prototypes to learn and iterate towards the best solution for the users.

There are 5-steps in the Design Thinking Process, which consist of:

Empathy
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test

Getting the Right Insights through Empathy

Observe real users

- Observing helps with understanding how they think, feel, and make decisions.
- “What?” focuses on understanding actions, behaviors, and characteristics
- “How” looks into the process of how users accomplish their goals
- “Why” uncovers motivations, emotions, and values that drive user behavior

Conducting video based studies in the user’s natural environment

- Helps uncover usability issues that may not happen in artificial testing environments, involving real-world constraints such as distractions.
- Most importantly, usability testing helps the designer gain insights into their workflow, decision-making process, and pain points
- Ensures the design solutions are within the users’ needs and context

Customer Journey Map

- The goal of a journey map is to gain an understanding of how a user engages with a product. It captures the perspectives, emotions, and motivations at different stages of their journey.

Establishing Personas

- After learning more about your users, you can create accurate profiles of users for your product.

Empathy is the core of user-centered design. By asking yourself who you are designing for, your focus shifts from your own assumptions and biases to gain a genuine understanding of the people who use your product. When conducting usability testing, you are getting a better understanding of your target audience and what their goals, motivations, and pain points are. Empathy encourages designers to deeply understand and connect with their users, leading to more user-centered, inclusive, and emotionally resonant design solutions.

Written by Marybeth Soriano Illustrator and Designer at BRIDGEGOOD