Empathy in user research: setting aside your own point of view

Removing one’s point of view from the research process.

Written by Shannon Copfer Brace (User-centered designer and researcher, founder of the Empathy Jam), & Robert Strati (Co-founder of Echo. Humanizing AI products through Emotional Design and Research)

Anyone practicing or learning about user research these days has likely considered ‘empathy’ and the role it plays in a productive process. In most non-user-research circles, empathy is considered a “soft skill”, sometimes thought to be a “you have it or you don’t” kind of thing.

We’d like to make the case that not only is empathy a powerful tool for innovative, efficient, and impactful user research; it is one that any user research practitioner can hone and wield. In this piece, we’ll look at specific approaches that will empower user researchers to access and incorporate empathy into their processes.

Sharing another’s feelings

If you accept the general definition of ‘empathy’: “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”, you will notice that there are two parts to this definition. First is the understanding, an intellectual exercise in which someone else’s feelings ‘make sense’ to us. Probably this alone would be enough to yield at least moderately meaningful insights from user research, including the ability to identify both positive and negative issues in the system being tested.

What we’re here to establish, however, is that the second piece of the definition of ‘empathy’, sharing another’s feelings, is a more crucial part of innovative, efficient, and impactful user research.

Removing one’s point of view

One of the biggest blockers to achieving complete empathy with another person is our own point of view:

• our reactions to what they say
• our assessments of a situation
• our internal dialogue and questions about our surroundings
• our evaluation of what is right and wrong or good and bad

An important aspect of practicing effective empathy is the ongoing, intentional removal of our own point of view.

Once we can set aside our unique point of view, we are in a state of mind that is rooted in something closer to pure emotions. On this level we are more capable of connecting with another person, sharing their feelings, and therefore being empathetic.

In the context of user research, tapping into the emotional connection will give us insights into a person’s deeper motivational levels. We can also then gauge the prioritization of our insights based on the strength of the emotions being expressed. All of this increases our efficiency and effectiveness in understanding what is most important in a user’s experience.

How to remove your point of view

BEFORE THE SESSION

DISTINGUISH YOUR POINT OF VIEW

Take a frank look at your own point of view and distinguish it as your point of view, today, in a specific place, at a specific moment in your life.

1. Check in with how you feel today
2. Note any protectiveness or defensiveness you are feeling about the design you will be testing, or the topic you will be discussing
3. Notice that these are all are ideas in your head and let them come in and out again, without attachment

ACKNOWLEDGE THE OTHER

Now that you’ve distinguished your own point of view, the next step is to remember that any other point of view in the world is 100% valid — as a point of view. Another point of view being valid as a point of view does not require us to agree with or condone it. It simply requires us to acknowledge that that point of view exists, grown from a set of experiences and a lived life exactly as it is, with no value judgement.

Put another way, as a user researcher, you are there as an observer to capture the experience of another person. This presumes the validity of that other experience.

To finish your preparation in terms of removing your own point of view:

1. Note any pre-judgements you may be making about the user, if you already have information about them
2. Remember the distinction between your point of view and the other person’s point of view
3. Give up your point of view

Giving up your point of view means to lose your attachment to it, and in particular being right or wrong during this session — especially important if you are a designer testing your own designs, but equally important for any researcher.

DURING THE SESSION

During the session, your point of view will come up again. You’ll find yourself instinctively reacting or responding to things the user says — maybe they mention voting for a different candidate than you!

WHEN TO USE YOUR POINT OF VIEW

Your goal is to keep setting aside and giving up your point of view when it relates to judgement, but there are times you will still need to use your point of view to gain a deeper understanding of the person being interviewed, making observations, and in keeping the session on track.

When a thought comes in from your point of view, notice it. If the thought is more of a judgemental thought, let it go and focus on listening to your interviewee. While you are listening, be purely with them in what they share. Here are some things you can focus on:

1. Keep bringing yourself back to listen
2. Remember to listen to what they don’t say out loud:
3. Pay attention to facial expressions
4. Read body language
5. Understand that pauses have meaning
6. Notice what might be a motivation or commitment underneath what they are saying or doing
7. Continue noticing your point of view as it comes up

If the thought is related to gaining a deeper understanding or clarity about what the person you are interviewing is expressing you should explore that. You can do this by:

1. Acknowledging something they said or did. You might say, “I noticed you squint your eyes when going through that process?”
2. Ask for them to expand on what they did, “Can you tell me what you were feeling and if something made you feel that way?”

You might find that even though they were able to easily complete the task they felt very uncomfortable about doing it. If you had not been using empathy to connect with them, you may have missed the squint. Understanding your point of view as the user researcher reminded you to dig in about why.

Because this process can be nuanced, questions arise such as, ”How will you know a realization is happening in empathy with your user versus happening inside your point of view and does it matter?” We would say to notice if the realization is related to judgement or if it is related to understanding. If it is understanding, you are most likely being empathic.

After the Session

ANALYSIS

As always, debrief with your team promptly. Gather your findings and consider the implications of the results from the test.

Use empathy to gauge what the findings meant. For example, different people can use the same word with different meanings, if someone says they are “terrified” by something, were they being hyperbolic or literal? If you were using empathy to determine that during the session, clarify that meaning in the analysis. The difference in meaning will potentially have implications on what is recommended.

PRIORITIZE

By using empathy in the process of observing and doing your analysis you will know what is important or impactful to a user because you will have felt and understood in a similar way.

You will have access to what you felt and experienced through your memory, in notes and potentially on video. Use these as a guide in prioritizing your findings. The findings that had the most impact on users on both cognitively and emotionally might prove to be the ones with highest priority. It is important to capture that.

REPORT

In creating the report be sure to reflect what was gained from the empathic approach to the testing. This is important for people who weren’t in the sessions to understand how it felt at points which might not be apparent based on things like watching videos.

Some things you can include in the report are:

• Emotional triggers
• Facial expressions and their interpretations
• Range of emotions expressed
• Time based findings and their meanings based on empathic inquiry
• Hesitations / confusion
• Pause / interest
• Quickly swiping / fun

Summary

In this article we’ve explored empathy as it relates to understanding another person’s point of view by putting our own point of view aside as researchers. This is one of many aspects of practicing empathy, but it is fundamental to doing user research in a way that limits bias based on a researcher’s own belief system.

When this is done and the resulting findings inform the design and development of products, those products will resonate with users on deeper emotional levels while at the same time allow them to achieve functional goals in ways that simply make more sense to them.

Written by Shannon Copfer Brace (User-centered designer and researcher, founder of the Empathy Jam), & Robert Strati (Co-founder of Echo. Humanizing AI products through Emotional Design and Research)