Empathy mapping

Empathy.mp4

Emi Kolawole about empathy in design (Ideo)

Introduction

"Empathy is the capacity to step into other people’s shoes, to understand their lives, and start to solve problems from their perspectives." Emi Kolawole, Ideo (more here). To design for meaningful impact we need to understand the people we design for, both the learners as well as the facilitators and even their support systems.

Design skill

You will be able to create an empathy map to inform your design

Background: Solving poverty without empathy? Impossible!

Educate! is working to combat poverty in African countries. This is a highly complex and multi-dimensional problem that affects the lives of millions of people. It affects everyone’s life differently and an average does not exist. As education designers in this context, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the different people we design for. As we reach low, middle and high-income schools, what journey can we shape for learners to be relevant and impactful towards solving poverty?

Policy makers, designers and practitioners who work in the development sector all have their ideas about what would be best for the poor… But many of our assumptions prove to be wrong! Banerjee and Duflo for example have compiled a number of studies on the lives of poor people and interventions geared towards helping them escape from the poverty trap (see here). There are numerous examples of interventions that get it wrong. For example, interventions that provide textbooks in schools upon observing that students don’t have access to them. In Kenya this intervention failed to yield results, most textbooks provided were in English yet for many students this is a third language.

So how do we start designing education programmes that will transform lives and equip youth to solve poverty? Well, start by being empathetic!

Do we understand the needs of the people we design for?

Read how the designers of the Google Glass lacked empathy, and more!

Design Thinking: Getting Started with EmpathyEmpathy is an important element in Design Thinking and Human-Centred Design. What is empathy exactly? Why is empathy so important to designing solutions that actually work for people? Here, we’ll not only look at what empathy means, but will also look at how it helps design thinkers create solutions that work and, conversely, how a lack of empathy can result in product failure. We’ll also come to understand the empowering notion that everyone can master empathy and design truly human-centred sol...

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Empathy mapping - How to

In their article, Interaction Design mention several frameworks that can support empathy in design. In Educate! we regularly make use of empathy mapping. This simple tool helps designers map out assumptions about how learners and other end-users perceive the problem at hand.

1. Get to know the person you are designing for

Immerse yourself in the life world of the person you are designing for. Visit a school, observe student behavior, chat with teachers in the staff room, etc.

2. Create the persona you are designing for

How would you characterize the student or teacher you are designing an experience for? Give this persona a name, imagine them sitting in class or working in school for a little while. At this point be aware that not all teachers are the same, are you talking about the motivated ones? The business subject teachers? Etc.

3. Fill out the empathy map

Brainstorm answers to the different question areas on the empathy map. If you don't know the answers, write down your assumptions and conduct some fact finding.

4. Formulate Point of View (POV) statements

POV statements help you capture the design vision you have for the person you empathized with. The statement combines the user, need and insight as follows:

[user... (descriptive)] needs [need....(verb)] because [insight....(compelling)]

Note! These statements do not include concrete solutions but look at human needs to feel, access, etc.

For example:

A highly motivated associate teacher who implements Skills Lab bi-weekly needs to feel recognized for their efforts, because otherwise they loose momentum to implement Skills Labs.
An independent and energetic retiree needs to feel secure about not outliving her assets because her biggest fear is being a burden to her children later in life.
A senior 5 student who has not chosen entrepreneurship, needs exposure to the benefits of entrepreneurship because they would appreciate the content of the LEC and Club experience more.
A designer who has just joined Educate!, needs to feel confident about their ability to apply foundational principles and design techniques, because they would fear not meeting expectations of the organisation.

Click on the picture to enlarge (source: Medium.com)

Assessment #1: Create an empathy map

You will create an empathy map to support your current design process. Follow all four steps to create your empathy map incl. a POV. Based on your new insights, what strategy would you propose in your current design project to meet the end-users POV? Submit your work to DesignAcademy@experienceeducate.org