“Listen to understand, not respond.”
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User experience (UX) in simple words, is the interaction a person has with the products and services of a company. Often confused with User Interface (UI), UX is a much wider concept. The overall experience of a user doesn’t only depend on the interface but it is one of the subsets of UX.
However, we aren’t here to elucidate on these two terms.
Empathy is frequently confused by designers with sympathy. Since a user’s experience chiefly depends upon the designer’s understanding of his needs, these two terms hold great significance in the industry. But what are Sympathy and Empathy? How do they differ? Let’s find out!
Sympathy
Sympathy is acknowledging someone’s pain and suffering. It’s when you recognize a situation of hardship a person is going through, and react in a way that is usually sorrowful or pitiful. Though it’s an emotional release from your side, you aren’t connecting to the person’s circumstances. It’s like you saying, “I regret that you have to go through all this.”
Is sympathy good? Definitely! Sympathizing with a user’s difficulty is a great sentiment and makes you want to design better to enrich their experience in the future. But it lacks a major aspect- “putting yourself in their position”. While sympathizing, all you are doing is admitting the user’s difficulty. For example, your design might have a certain element or color, or an infographic that a particular section of users might not relate to. You identify their feelings but do not relate to their emotions.
Empathy
Empathy on the other hand is a deeper association between you and the user. When you empathize with someone’s difficulties, you are putting yourself in their shoes and trying to feel what they feel. In this case, your understanding of the other person’s emotion and hardship is much more.
William Hudson’s research in 2009 revealed that males working in the technical industry lack empathy. You might ask how does that matter if you are a genius with your skills and creativity? Well, it does matter a ton because empathy enables you to detect the problems with your design, and it’s probably the most effective way of doing so, as you are inspecting everything from the eyes of a user and trying to find a cure. Innovation plays a crucial role in UX designing but has to be limited at times as it would be redundant if your users aren’t able to take advantage of it. And what helps in knowing the extent or the very need of these limitations? Empathy!
How to develop Empathy in UX?
Inspired by the user based research by Nielsen Norman Group, here are the 5 steps to develop Empathy in UX.
Research: make attempts to know what your user’s difficulties, requirements, expectations, and fears are. Keep your questions open-ended and organize research sessions for diverse sections of users. You should monitor the results and observations.
Create an empathy map: An empathy map helps you visualize how a user would be looking at your design. It furnishes the — “says, thinks, feels and does’’ of a user, which is vital in understanding their experience.
Build a diverse team: your team should have members from different backgrounds and age groups. This diversity would help you in coming across different opinions and identifying the requirements of multiple users.
Ask others for input: By others, I mean not only your closed ones. Even your colleagues might not point out the problems with your design. You must approach people out of your circle to give you direct inputs without any hesitations.
Practice humility: gathering feedback and not taking steps to implement changes is a waste of valuable time of yours as well as others. Try being a little modest when it comes to accepting inadequacies and instead of feeling belittled or criticized, take steps towards improvement.
So, Sympathy or Empathy?
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It is possible for a designer to feel empathy and sympathy independently from each other. So, which one is better? Well, you need to have both of these qualities to be an intelligent designer but if a choice has to be made, it’s the empathy that is indispensable for your work. You cannot go used by the user asking for their personal experiences with your design and therefore, empathy would allow you to think from a user’s point of view and come up with a result that suffices their needs. Be open to feedback. Use effective communication and analytical tools to follow what’s trending and what’s expected out of your design. Using a user poll or survey form would prove to be remarkably beneficial.
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