empathy & design
As human-centered designers, we consciously work to understand the experience of our clients. Designing with empathy allows us to develop concepts, products, services, strategies, and systems that are both innovative and responsive to actual user needs and desires. In order to be the most successful in accommodating our clients and problem solving, we must address the entirety of their experience. It is important to understand their experiences and take them into account when designing with empathy. Connecting with people in a meaningful way creates an honest and trustworthy environment, bolstering the potential for a solution through thoughtful design.
Without fully grasping and understanding the desires, feelings, and experiences of the client, there becomes a capacity for gaps, constraints, and bias. In the podcast “Invisible Woman” by Caroline Criado Perez, we hear about multiple instances of gender data bias. She explains that there is an absence of women in data gathering which causes the vast majority of research and knowledge that we’ve gained to only represent the male population. For years, women have barely existed in data. We subconsciously refer to men as the “default-human” because of the lack of acknowledgment of female experiences. The failure to collect data on and from women has caused major consequences in their lives. Healthcare data that has been taken from men excludes the symptoms, health conditions, and medications that might apply specifically to women’s bodies. The car crash dummies used in testing car safety are built like a male’s body. These tests exclude women’s body anatomy entirely from the collection of data, putting them at major risk for injury.
In the reading “Empathy on the Edge,” the designers at IDEO explain the importance of seeking out people’s needs and then addressing them through design. They believe that designing with empathy is a valuable approach and can open up the capacity for innovation and positive change. “However we choose to gain empathy, it can help us to focus, prioritize, and defend our design decisions—all of which is necessary in the ever-evolving business of design innovation. Empathy also motivates design teams to keep going and provides energy to overcome the inevitable obstacles to bringing new offerings to life.” They highlight the importance of understanding the client and trying to place yourself in their unique position. To avoid misunderstanding and biases, designers must be fully invested in the experiences and desires of the client. From their perspective, it is a fully immersive process that forces the designer to think of all of the details.
In both the podcast and the reading, we hear people who are passionate about understanding others and designing for humans. They both underline the importance of practicing empathy in the design process. As a human-centered designer, it is our responsibility to to look at the picture from all perspectives and understand the ways in which experiences shape and effect others.