So, if you’ve not heard of empathy, this is the ability to understand and identify with another person necessities, like their goals, emotions and motivations in life.

To design great experiences, the best companies effortlessly search for empathy insights to understand their audience. For designers, empathy provides a unique purpose to create better design decisions.

By practicing empathy (and with this I mean indulging yourself in the context of the user/target) we can collect crucial information and objectify what are the key points we need to create a successful experience and product.

For designers, empathy provides a unique purpose to create better design decisions.

Want to try this? You need to use these 3 exercises together. So let’s get that empathy on board 🛥️

• Look at what people do
• Try putting yourself on their shoes
• Ask people to participate on your project (ask them for feedback, don’t be stubborn ask for information)

Do you still doubt the necessity of using empathy in our design process?

When we create a website/app/platform we are creating experiences for a user, and those experiences only work at their highest level if they are made with a purpose. Imagine yourself planning your summer trip. You first start analyzing where you want to go. Then your next step is talking to friends who were recently traveling, you ask them about their experience, where and when they went, and why they went in that specific date, etc. However, for most people that’s not enough 😉 we need to browse the internet and know more about their trip, so we can get even more inspired.

But why do we do this?

We do this to create, base on the experience of others an even better experience.

Using empathy on design process we create a similar experience. In order to design products and services we need to learn about people and the objective they have, only then you can understand what they need to perform their task. When you learn about your audience on a subjective level, you can understand what their needs are and what they feel when they accomplish them.

For designers and design thinkers empathy is allowing the real understanding of people’s needs and emotion, making it possible to create better and successful solutions.

When you learn about your audience on a subjective level, you can understand what their needs are and what they feel when they accomplish them.

So, never forget, empathy enables the creation of great products such as the first iPhone and, not using it, leads to a much less successful outcome, like the webcam covers. Did anyone ever bought one of these covers?! I prefer using a regular sticker 😉

https://youtu.be/UzPMMSKfKZQ

Thank you for reading

We really do want to hear from you! Get in touch

Monday is a full service digital and interactive agency based in Lisbon. Weʼre a team of designers, builders & thinkers who craft digital experiences. Clients include: Snickers, Red Bull, Twix, Philips, M&M’s

Michael Nunes

Chief Creative Officer  @ Monday 

Meet Michael 

Outros artigos de Michael Nunes

Monday presents: A customer experience transformation for Full Fabric