Empathize Phase Empathy
Mapping
Allows us to aggregate our learnings from our research with people during the design research. The map provides four major areas which the user demonstrated during the observation/research stage. The four quadrants refer to what the user: Said, Did, Thought, and Felt.
When would you use Empathy Mapping?
Empathy Mapping is a collection and analysis tool that usually follows the field research from interviews and most commonly from observational and experiential research. By organizing the observations across the four categories, the team will be better poised to identify user needs, pain points and wants. This will ideally yield some key user insights.
Here’s where Empathy Mapping can be a difference maker:
- You need to identify pain points and opportunities to develop new product or services
- You need to better understand your user’s experience and prioritize features that will have the most significant impact
- You are trying to educate and build empathy with your R&D team or development team into the real experiences of your customers
How does Empathy Mapping work?
- 1
List out all of your observations, secondary data and clues on individual "cards" on a physical or digital board. - 2
Looking across the various "cards", move each into the appropriate quadrants on your empathy map. - 3
Review the placement of the cards with fellow team members. - 4
Looking across each quadrant, identify patterns or themes that are emerging. Be sure to describe the connection amongst the key findings.
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Deliberate Innovation Empathy Mapping Tool Guide
Top Empathy Mapping Tips
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Before anything else - Define your specific goals: whether it's to improve a product, enhance user experience, or solve a particular user problem. -
Involve a cross-functional team - in the empathy mapping session. Including people who can provide a range of insights and perspectives, enriching the empathy map. -
Use real user data and insights gathered from research methods like interviews, surveys, and observation. Direct quotes, behaviors, and anecdotes can provide a strong foundation for your map -
Focus on specific type of customer or persona. Empathy maps are most effective when they focus on a specific user segment. Trying to cover all possible users in a single map can lead to generalized and less useful insights. -
Your empathy map quadrants can vary based on your need. In general, we often the following 4 area: Say: What are users explicitly saying about their experiences, needs, and frustrations? Think: What might users be thinking but not saying out loud? Do: What behaviors or habits do they exhibit? Feel: Try to capture the emotions users experience. -
Use the insights gained to identify opportunities for:improving user experience, addressing pain points, and meeting unmet needs. Be specific about how you can apply what you've learned to design solutions. -
User needs and behaviors can change over time. Make empathy mapping an ongoing activity, revisiting and updating your maps as you gather new insights. -
An empathy map should be visually engaging and easy to understand at a glance.
More Empathy Mapping Tips & Stories
Storytelling is at the heart of our teaching and is essential for understanding new concepts. Here are some short stories and tips to continue to bring this tool to life.
Additional Empathy & Insights Articles & Resources
Reducing Information Overload by Simplifying
“We are compelled to think of all things at the same time… preventing the appropriate amount of attention
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The Curiosity Box: A Solution to the Recurring Cycle of Ennui
“Shut off your devices!” I had reached my boiling point. My 10-year-old son was blithely staring at his phone, while simultaneously playing on his Xbox....
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When Customer Experience Can be the Difference Between Life and Death
On a frigid November evening, I ascended the steep steps at the 7th Avenue subway station in midtown Manhattan.
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