Introduction to empathy maps
*being a non-native English speaker, this article may have language mistakes.
Nowadays, the tendency of the companies is not just producing software, but to take into consideration the people for whom we are designing, and what they need. But, without having in mind what our user is thinking and how they are behaving our design is pointless. To offer a good experience through our product, we need to understand all about our users, from their preferences to their activities, from their feelings to their behavior. Empathizing with the end-users is opening that door to them it offers you perspectives on how to treat the needs and how to quickly find a solution or an answer for them.
What empathy is?
In my previous articles (“What about empathy” and “How to empathize with end-users”) I mentioned a few things about empathy. Nevertheless, I added, also, in here a few more lines about empathy, lines that can help you to better understand what this term really means.
In simple terms, empathy is placing in other people’s shoes and feel what they are feeling. If you are looking for an elaborated definition, Simon Baron-Cohen (in his book “Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty”) defined the empathy as the “ability to identify what someone else is thinking or feeling and to respond to their thought and feeling with an appropriate emotion”. Empathy has a lot of benefits on both sides, but the most important one is trust.
What an empathy map is?
Having these and mind and willing to improve the process of the professionals, David Gray (also known as the author of The Connected Company and Gamestorming books) developed the empathy map, a tool which is helping him with his visual thinking company (Xplane).
An empathy map is a visual collaborative tool that can help the team to better and deep understand what end-user want and need. The structure of an empathy map is very simple and it is based by reaching how the user is behaving. Through this tool, you can capture one particular user or a group of users.
The traditional format of the empathy map
The traditional format of an empathy map has 4 quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does, Feels and the user or the persona in the middle of it. Usually, this is useful during the initial analysis.
- Says. In this section are included the real questions addressed to the users during the research phase or usability testing sessions.
- Thinks. In this section are included the questions that are defining how the user thinks related to a product.
- Does. This section is dedicated to the actions the users are doing and to their behavior while they are making some particular actions.
- Feels. This section contains information about what emotions the users experience it. You must include in here what worries the users, what the user s feel about the experience, and what makes the users happy.
The Paul Boag format of the empathy map
To make the empathy map more adapted to the UX Design process and deliverables, the UX Designer and Digital Transformation Specialist Paul Boag propose a new format may have 5 quadrants: Tasks, Feelings, Pain Points, Overall Goal, Influences and, of course, the user or the persona in the middle of it.
- Tasks. You must include in here what are the tasks the users are trying to complete, and what are the questions need to be answered.
- Feelings. In this section are included the answers from the following questions “How are the users feeling about the experience? What matters to them?”
- Pain Points. This section is dedicated to what are the pain points the users are experiencing and hoping to overcome.
- Overall Goal. This section contains the users ultimate goal, and what they are trying to achieve.
- Influences. In this section are included the influences (things, places, people, elements, etc.) the users may have during making actions and taking decisions.
The Dave Gray format of the empathy map
The revised and updated empathy of Dave Gray has a more complex view and it is split into 6 quadrants: Goals, See, Say, Do, Hear, Think & Feel (Pains/Gains) and the user or the persona in the middle of it.
- Goals. In this section, you must include who are we empathizing with (Who is the person we want to understand? What is the situation they are in? What is their role in the situation? — questions you will find in the empathy map template) and what do they need to do to reach the goal and what are the decisions they will need to make.
- See. This section contains the information to understand their external stimuli, how the exterior is affecting them and their decisions.
- Say. In this section, we will add the reactions of the user and how we will imagine what the users are saying about something. It is important to follow and find the discrepancies between what users are saying and what they are doing and hearing.
- Do. In this section are included all information about users actual behavior, and how they are behaving and why.
- Hear. This section is designed to contain the sources that can make the user (customer) use the product or the service.
- Think & Feel. In the end, you must understand how your user thinks and feels. You will need to cover here the fears, frustrations, worries, happiness, hopes, desires and gains.
So, through an empathy map, you will not know your users, better, but you will be able to understand them and what they need and why they will behave in a way or another. Also, you and your team will be more informed about what you want to build, and the team members will start with the same common understanding related to what they will create and, most important, for whom they will create.
