Empathizing Methods
Are they mostly Empathy Theatre?
Last week I posted about an empathy map that had a behavioral lens on it - and I am working with some behavioral scientists to expand it and add examples of how you could use it...
But let's get back to the headline and why I am thinking of this behavioral lens for these empathize methods (image Interaction Design Foundation)
In the past and before adding a behavioral lens - we used to say "We must empathize with the user" - Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the customer/employee, let's capture their thoughts, feelings, motivations emotions" (there is a whole other post on putting yourself in someone's shoe's)
So, with our new shoes - we get started on our design.... and then...
The product/ service does not perform as we expected.
But why not? we listened, we wore the shoes and we gave the users everything they wanted.
But did we.....
Lets revisit that
In the project, we captured information using the methods - nothing really wrong here at this point.
We then look at an interview
User 1 said "I don't know how to do this in your service"
So, we immediately assumed it was a knowledge issue, and we packed the service with tons of tutorial videos.
So what went wrong?
Well, we did not go deep enough or have enough understanding of what “I don't know how to do this”, as perhaps the user did not mean a lack of knowledge
Perhaps what they really meant was that they don't believe they can do it because:
1)It looks hard 2)They lack self-belief 3)They don't believe it will help them 4)They lack time 5)People around them tell them it was hard for them
And here is where your insight analysis and coding of your data really matters.
You need to design your questions with a behavioral framework and psychological models in mind, so you can ask deeper questions and uncover the real influences - which you can then design to enable or remove.
Nowhere in the empathize phase is there a mention of us using systematic, evidence-based approach to design, instead we assume and just jump into what feels familiar to deliver.
Instead, we just confirm to ourselves that we know what is best for the user ( yes, I have had PMs tell me those exact words) - and yes, there is nothing wrong with the PM saying they represent the customer, but they need to do so with the right approach to back it up.
Do you agree that we are missing a more systematic and evidence-based approach to designing for our customer's and employees' needs?