Empathy is highlighted as one of the most crucial and valuable qualities for UX designers. Despite existing research paradigms and methods, applying empathy theories to real-world situations can be challenging, especially for young designers who lack practical experience. Insufficient empathy can make it difficult to encourage genuine and in-depth self-disclosure from users.
We first did a round of literature review to understand the current research state around empathy in the Human-centered Design process.
<aside> 💡 Kouprie and Sleeswijk Visser's (2009) framework identifies two components of empathy: affective and cognitive. The affective component involves natural emotional responses, while the cognitive component involves perspective-taking. Subcomponents of empathy include empathic concern, personal distress, perspective-taking, and fantasy. It's worth noting that empathy is not just an individual trait but is also influenced by the situation and context in which it occurs (McQuiggan and Lester, 2006). Therefore, understanding situational and cultural factors is critical in empathizing with users.
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Given the limitations of existing solutions, we hypothesized that there is a design space for us to enhance designers’ empathetic behaviors and promote in-the-moment interaction with users. Empathy Deck serves as a valuable tool for young designers to continuously reflect on their empathetic thinking and practices, as well as contribute to the education of human-centered design to meet the industry's increasing demand.
The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between empathy theory and practice and offer young designers a tangible and handy tool for improving empathy in their work.
To achieve the design objectives above, we carried out 4 contextual interviews, 1 co-design session, 1 ethnographic session, and 1 cultural probe during our research process.