Empathy maps are a valuable tool for UX Designers. After qualitative user research is completed, the findings are organized into a visual form called an empathy map to help the team recognize the user’s pain points.
Empathy mapping can be done as a single or group activity, but it is especially useful to bring the team together for empathy mapping so that they all understand who the end-user is. Empathy maps are one of the tools that help the team make design decisions and stay user-centered throughout the process.
Empathy in the Design Thinking Process
Empathy is the first phase in the Design Thinking process and it means setting aside your own beliefs to learn what the user’s world looks like. During this phase, the design team gets to know the user, and the best way to do this is through research. The first step in the research planning should be to define the goals of the effort, and those goals usually include Identifying the user’s pain points. Next, the team will interview users and then construct empathy maps. An empathy map is a tool to help organize research findings and create a physical representation your team can refer to throughout the design process. The traditional format for an empathy map is four squares labeled thinks, says, does, and feels with a circle in the center labeled user. The squares are filled in with the user’s responses and observations of the user’s behavior. Building empathy maps can remind the team of what the design is about as they move through the process.
History of the Empathy Map
The empathy map was developed by a team at the design firm XPLANE led by Dave Gray. It was part of a toolkit called Gamestorming. Empathy maps have been adopted by many UX/UI Designers as a way to gain a better understanding of users. The original empathy map had four squares with a circle in the middle to represent the user. Gray and his team updated the traditional map in 2017 to put emotion in the central portion of the map, added a section on goals, and numbered the sections to show the sequence in which the map was intended to be used
The traditional empathy map has four squares with labels–thinks, says, does, and feels–with a circle in the center labeled user. The Thinks box has notes on observations of the user’s facial expressions and body language. The Says box contains direct quotes of what the user said during the session. The Does box has descriptions of the actions the user takes during the interview, the Feels box is filled with responses to questions about emotions.
Creating an Empathy Map
The first step in creating an empathy map is to define the scope and goals of the project. These goals should answer the question “Who is the user and what task are they accomplishing?”
Next, conduct the research using interviews, direct observation, contextual inquiry, or diary studies. When it comes to interview questions, use open-ended questions rather than closed ones. Closed-ended questions elicit yes/no responses, which aren’t very useful for getting to a user’s beliefs and experiences. Open-ended questions bring out more elaborate and detailed answers. Be sure to have a notetaker present and record the interview so that you have a record of body language and facial expressions.
Now gather the materials you will need for the map. You can use Post-it notes or one of the digital whiteboard and collaboration tools available such as Adobe XD, Sketch, or Figma.
Get together as a team, organize the research findings into categories (think, says, does, and feels) and use these to construct maps. You can leave the map in a conference room or a common space where the design team works. Some teams make the empathy map into a poster for the team to use or to share with the larger company about who the end-user is.
Creating Personas, Scenarios, and Journey Maps
Empathy maps are used to create user personas, another valuable tool in user-centered design. While empathy maps are created from the responses of real users, personas are descriptions of fictional users of a product. They are brief, only one or two pages, with a photo, vital statistics, a short bio, and other information relevant to the project. These descriptions are made from empathy maps of real users who participated in surveys and interviews. Personas are then used to put together scenarios and journey maps. Scenarios are the settings for the journey maps which are stories told about users and the way they use a website or app.
Personas and scenarios are useful tools that help a design team figure out who their users are, help them identify with the user, and keep the design on track. When the team creates and uses personas and scenarios, it gives the user a face and an environment, even if it is a fictitious one, and that helps the team identify with the user. Being able to see the product from the user’s perspective is important for user-focused design.
Empathy maps, personas, scenarios, and journey maps help designers make user-centered design decisions and create features to support the user’s needs and desires as expressed through the persona and scenario. This helps the designers avoid self-referential design, which is a situation where the team ends up designing the product they would like instead of focusing on the user.
Where to Learn UX Design
If you would like to learn more about UX design and research to switch to a new career, one of the best ways to do that is to sign up for classes. You can choose classes that meet in-person or online to learn design software and other applications. Some people prefer to attend brick-and-mortar sessions when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a field like UX design is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run from a few weeks to a few months and another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Conclusion
It’s easy to learn UX design and start a new career. Check out Noble Desktop’s UX design classes. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online UX design courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other UX design bootcamps in your area.