the Empathy Deck
a tangible tool crafted to enhance empathy-building and enrich meaningful engagement in direct designer-participant interactions within human-centered design processes
client/audience
Young Designers
timeframe
Jan 2023 - May 2023
role
UX Researcher
UX Designer
Project Manager
Central to the human centred design process is the genuine connection that designers establish with their clients' perspectives and experiences. Therefore, designers being able to empathize with their clients is crucial in the process. Despite existing research paradigms and methods, applying empathy theories to real-world situations can be challenging due to the complex relationships between designers and users.
The goal of this project is to find a solution to help young designers make meaningful connections with their users and extract deeper, more heartfelt, and transferable insights to generate design solutions in a well-grounded and progressive manner.
The Overview
Context on Empathy
The Definition (according to most psychological literature)
affective + cognitive
emotional contagion:
an immediate and often automatic response to someone else's emotion
perspective-taking:
an intellectual grasp and understanding of someone else's feelings and thoughts
The concept of empathy is often divided into two main components:
Simply understanding the user's emotional state (affective empathy) or cognitively grasping their perspective (cognitive empathy) alone is insufficient. True empathy involves a balance between these two components, forming the core mechanism of empathy that's essential for creating meaningful and effective designs. Therefore, designers should aim to both feel the user's emotional state and understand their perspective.
Kouprie and Sleeswijk Visser's framework of Empathy
The framework contextualizes empathy within the design process and highlights the importance of integrating both affective resonance and cognitive reasoning throughout the process of cultivating empathy.
Discovery
Immersion
Connection
Detachment
Discovery
The designer makes their first contact with the user. The designer’s curiosity is raised, resulting in their willingness to explore the user's situation and experience.
Immersion
This is the most important phase in realizing an empathic process and it requires time. The designer expands their knowledge about the user and is surprised by various aspects that influence the user’s experience. The designer is openminded and absorbs new information without judgement. Without this phase, the knowledge about the user’s world will not increase.
Connection
The designer draws connection with the user by recalling upon their own memories and experiences. At this phase, both affective and cognitive components are important; the affective to understand user's feelings, the cognitive to understand what it means to the user.
Detachment
The designer detaches from their emotional connection and steps back to into the role of a designer again. The designer deploy the new insights for ideation that better fit the user’s world.
Research Process and Methods
Several processes and methods have been carried out, including 4 contextual interviews as pre-study research, 2 ethnographic studies, and 1 cultural probes study with student designers recruited through our personal connections.
The interviewed young designers shed light on factors that facilitate or hinder designers' ability to fully empathize with their users. These factors are further categorized based on the phases of Kouprie and Sleeswijk Visser's empathy framework.
Insights from Contextual Interviews
discovery
immersion
connection
detachment
user's comfort level and willingness to open up also affects designers' success in the disocvery phase
environmental
factors and the physical setup of designer/user interactions could hinder designers'
immersion
designers' personal assumptions and
preconceptions
are difficult to overcome which impede designers' immersion
efforts to break the ice/boundary help
encourage the user to welcome the designer into their space
a successful connection builds on the
the richness of information
designer/user power dynamic is a critical determinant to immersion and connection
unproductiveness in previous phases would impact designers' detachment
Why We Chose This Method?
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to gain more detailed rationale about young designers beyond professional settings
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to examine how situational factors influence empathy cultivation
What We Did?
We assembled our own probe kit, delineated a series of tasks, and distributed it to 3 young designers over the course of a week. Live photos, audio recordings, drawings, and written reflections are collected.
What is in Our Kit?
Why We Chose This Method?
-
to examine how designers interact with their users in natural settings
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to capture rich data about their behaviours and interactions that can’t be captured in contextual interviews
Method I:
What We Did?
Our UX Researchers conducted two rapid ethnographic studies, observing young designers interacting with their target users in a co-design session and a museum ethnography session. Mental notes, audio recordings, and photos were collected.
Ethnographic Study
Ethnographic study is an approach that involve researchers immerse themselves in the target subject's environment. All insights about the target will be gained through fieldwork where researchers establish a comprehensive understanding of what the target subjects' behaviours, beliefs, and perspectives.
Method II:
Cultural Probes
This method involves providing target subject with a set of open-ended prompts and probe, designed to elicit responses that reveal aspects of their daily routines and preferences. Target subjects are asked to interact with these items, recording their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and observations as they go about their daily lives. The method encourages the users of the study to adopt a slightly detached attitude and approach the study with an overall personal and informal feeling that they donโt usually feel when interacting with a study. Responses are collected to identify patterns and opportunities for design, all while providing inspirational data that stimulate imagination.
Summary of Findings
Through a combination of ethnographic research and cultural probes, we observed the designers' behaviours and interactions with their users in real-life situations and examined designers beyond their professional settings.
We identified three factors that positively influence empathy:โ
Additionally, we found factors that hinder empathy:
designer's mindfulness and self-awareness of their behavior during an interaction
designer's demonstrated
readiness to empathize
designer's initiatives and strategies to encourage more interaction
Designers being aware of their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours during interactions can encourage their empathetic responses.
Thus, enhancing one's ability to empathize with others can begin by becoming more aware of one's behaviour.
In addition to being receptive and responsive to the experiences and emotions of users, designer's willingness to open up to the user is essential for a meaningful interaction.
Designers who demonstrate readiness to empathize can cultivate a warm and comfortable environment for users.
Creating opportunities for dialogue, engagement, and collaboration can enhance empathy by fostering mutual understanding and connection between designers and users.
Designers' taking proactive steps to facilitate meaningful interactions with users can enhance their ability to develop empathy towards users.
engages the affective component
engages the affective component
engages the cognitive component
designer's unprofessional behaviour during an interaction
designer's assumptive communication barriers
unbalanced power dynamics between designer and target user
Preconceived notions, stereotypes, and biases can create barriers to empathy by distorting perceptions and inhibiting genuine understanding.
Open communication that is free from assumptions is essential for fostering empathetic connections.
The sentiment of unequal power dynamics can hinder communication and empathy.
Addressing power imbalances is crucial for creating a more equitable and empathetic relationship between designers and users.
Dismissive, showing disinterest, lack of attention, and inappropriate behaviour can undermine empathy by eroding trust and rapport between designers and users.
Upholding professionalism is crucial for creating a supportive and empathetic environment where meaningful interactions can occur.
engages the cognitive component
engages the cognitive component
engages the affective component
The six factors underscore the multifaceted nature of empathy in interactions between designers and users:
It is indicated that the affective component of empathy provides the emotional foundation and motivation for individuals to engage in the cognitive processes necessary for achieving the fullest form of empathy.
โ
The combination of these factors emphasizes the importance of designers adopting a mindful approach in their interactions with users which will not only enhances the quality of interactions but also cultivates empathy within the designer-user relationship.
Design Directions
Given the factors identified, the design directions are to fortify the affective component by:
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prioritizing genuine understanding
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facilitating respectful communication
-
encouraging equitable relationships
Ultimately, through a mindful engagement, designers can better connect with users, understand their needs and perspectives, create an environment that fosters empathy, and develop more effective and user-centred design solutions.
Informed by our research findings and acknowledging the fundamental significance of emotional connections in nurturing empathy, our design aims to cultivate empathy by establishing trust and fostering a comfortable dynamic that promotes bonding between users and designers.
The Gist: design idea one-liner
The Final Idea: the Empathy Deck
We engaged in a thorough process of idea brainstorming, drawing connections to relevant theories and principles from literature review and user research, and evaluated the pros and cons of each idea to ultimately select the final design concept that aligned with our project goal:
a tangible tool that empowers designers and users to react to, reflect on, and to embark on introspective and creative journeys where together, they will break down barriers and engage in smooth interactions!
How to Use
At the outset of a designer-user encounter, the two parties will select a visual card from the deck, to which they freely react through conversation, writing, or drawing, transforming the chosen card into a springboard for sharing ideas and perspectives, fostering a more meaningful dialogue and connection.
abstract art and visual stimulus
The Visual Cards
Suzanne Peloquin's analysis of art underscores art's transformative potential, suggesting that it encourages individuals to:
thereby deriving empathy through art...
Hence, by incorporating of art, we believe it would be a powerful device to facilitate meaningful conversations and place designers and users in the same headspace.
engage their senses to grasp emotions
1
broaden their imagination to embrace fresh perspectives
2
participate in activities that enrich understanding
3
The Empathy Checklist
How to Use
Prior to each interaction, the designer is welcomed to write down how they plan to implement the factors to cultivate empathy between them and the users.
Following the interaction, the designer will check off what they successfully achieved and evaluate their performance in the interaction.
a factor that can influence empathy
a section to write down strategies, plans, and goals
a rating scale
How to Use
After the designer-user interaction, the designer will allocate time to reflect on their empathy process and the effectiveness of their empathy towards the participants.
a section for
post-interaction
reflection
Thus, we included the checklist as a component of the product to help increase awareness of empathy and carry out post-interaction reflections. We also decided to have the checklist employ open-ended prompts rather than prescriptive ones, allowing designers to personalize the checklist based on their own needs.
Literature suggests that recognizing empathetic boundaries and increasing self-awareness will help designers foster empathy with their participants.
The Wildcard
Open-ended cards for designers to create their own visual prompts and customize their own checklist with additional factors not included in the empathy deck.
How to Use
We have included blank cards, providing designers with the flexibility to integrate their own creative inspirations as visual prompts and tailor the checklist to their specific requirements.
Empathy is challenging to teach and varies across contexts...
User Testing
We evaluated the effectiveness of the visual cards during the Information Science poster session with strangers and with friends and colleagues:
Most people who interacted with the cards expressed that they had images and words generated in their minds and were willing to share and discuss them with others. We also observed how the cards could inspire conversations among people by revealing their vulnerabilities and generating empathy naturally throughout the interaction. Moreover, the cards facilitated people in understanding each other's values, personalities, and creative thoughts in a short period of time. By listening to each other's perspectives on the cards, individuals naturally inquired about the underlying context behind the other's emotions and feelings, facilitating a deeper understanding and empathetic process. This was precisely what we had intended with our design, and we were pleased to see it in action.
@cornellbowerscis
The Reflection
Reflecting on the entire process, our research provided valuable insights into the multiple factors that influence empathy and allowed us to identify three stages for intervention that can help designers better foster empathy: before the interaction, during the interaction, and post interaction.
Future Work
Aside from the positive outcomes, we also noted some limitations of the design that need to be addressed in future iterations. We recognized that individuals have differences in sensitivity and reactions to the visual cards, and that some people may be unable to generate more art or may not have anything to say about the cards. This falls short of our intended objective of facilitating designer-user interactions through the warm-up session. Additionally, people have varying levels of openness and willingness to reveal their feelings and genuine thoughts to strangers, which corresponds to the affective component found in our literature review. With our cards, we respect the individual choices that result in the varying degrees of effectiveness of our design in different people and situations. We plan to address these nuances in future iterations to make the design more solid and generalizable.