UNIT-2

EMPATHIZE AND DEFINE PHASES IN DESIGN THINKING:

Human-Centered Design (HCD) process - Empathize, Define,

Ideate, Prototype and Test and Iterate.
Role of Empathy in design thinking,
Methods and tools of empathy,
Understanding empathy tools.
Explore define phase state users’ needs and problems using
empathy methods,
The Define Stage in Design Thinking: Purpose & Importance
problem statement, how to define a meaningful problem statement
Human-Centered Design (HCD) process
• Human-centered design is a problem-solving technique
that puts real people at the centre of the development
process
• enables to create products and services are tailored to
audience's needs
• “Human-centred design is a framework that considers
human perspectives throughout the design process.”
• IDEO, a global design company, launched the Human-
centered Design Toolkit, an innovative toolbox that
guides designers
Human-Centered Design vs Design
Thinking
• Design Thinking is a process where we discover a problem
and design solutions to solve it. This includes ideating,
testing, and prototyping.
• On the other hand, HCD puts focus on people for whom you
are designing a product.
• The amalgamation of a human-centric approach and an
out-of-the-box solution to deliver an incredible user
experience is the key to a successful product or platform.
• It is equally essential to understand how you can create a
human-centric design with human-centered design
principles.
Examples of Human Centred Design:

1.Pull/Push Door:
 Problem Solution designed
 The design had interrupted human  The push part of the door does not
brain cognitive Bias. need handle.

 For brain seeing handle triggers an  Design a door with only in the pull
action to pull it. side of the door.

 In this case the push and pull part Leave the push side with a plain pad.
of the door are fitted with a handle,
 People will push the door
this creates confusion in brain. automatically if they don’t see a
handle
2.Kids Toothbrush:

Kids hold tooth brushes is totally different from an adult. so it is harder for them to use a toothbrush that are designer for
adults.
 Problem Solution designed

 Kids hands are so small Made the hands of brush fat

 They hold tooth brush inside and squishy

their fist. Adults hold it  Introduced small bristles
inside the fingers
 Introduced funny
 Lack of motivation to brush character to the handle
thei r teeth
 Created funny accessories
Role of Empathy in Design Thinking:
 As the starting point of the design process, Empathy allows a designer to understand the
people who will eventually use their product or service
 Empathy is a core value of design thinking .it is also the first step in the design thinking
process.
 Empathy, draws attention to the abilities of researchers and designers to see the world
through other people’s eyes, feel what they feel, and experience things as they do
 Empathy allows a designer to understand the user’s physical and emotional needs.
 The Oxford Dictionary defines Empathy as “the ability to understand and share the
feeling of another”.
 Empathy is the first step in design thinking because it is a skill that allows us to
understand and share the same feelings that others feel. Through empathy, designers are
able to put ourselves in other people's shoes and connect with how they might be
feeling about their problem, circumstance, or situation Some questions to consider:
The design thinking process as developed by Stanford
d.school & IDEO

Inspiration Ideation Implementation

Choose a design challenge Generate Ideas Understand the target
Plan & research methods Select promising idea Create an action plan
Build interview guide Make prototypes Launch solution
Additional research Test and Get feedback & Iterate
Capture learning Feedback & Iterate Scale towards impact
Human-centred design
• Human-centred design and engineering is divided into three
fundamental principles – Observation, Ideation, and Implementation.
Human-Centered Design Examples

Spotify
• Have you ever thought about how Spotify disrupted the music
industry? Why does it still stand out when there are tons of
applications mimicking its services?
• Here is the answer: Spotify made it easier and cheaper to listen
to music.
• Spotify is the first primary streaming service that allows people
to collect and stream music instead of buying it.
• Thanks to Spotify, people don’t have to buy $0.99 or $1.99
songs anymore – with a monthly subscription model that gives
millions of songs on Spotify, we can search a song and play it.
Methods and tools of empathy

1. Various Mindsets:

➢ Observing Everything
➢ Building Empathy
➢ Immersing in daily life
➢ Listening openly
➢ Looking for problems and needs
2. Know People Methods:
1. Research Participant Map 9. User Pictures Interview
2. Research Planning 9. Cultural Artifacts
Survey 10. Image Sorting
3. User Research Plan 11. Experience Simulation
4. Five Human Factors 12. Field Activity
5. POEMS 13. Remote Research
6. Field Visit 14. User Observations
7. Video Ethnography Database
8. Ethnographic Interview
3. Empathy tools

1. Constant Curiosity: Ask What- 7. Engage with extreme users

how-why 8. Story share-and -capture
2. Ask the 5 whys 9. Journey maps
3. Conduct interviews with 10. Empathy Maps
Empathy 11. Golden Circle Design
4. Build Empathy with Analogies 12. Mind Mapping
5. Use photo and video user-based 13. Body storm
studies
14. Immersion and observation
6. Use personal photo and video
15. Survey forms
journals
 11 best Software tools for Empathy

1. Hotjar : is a product experience insights platform

Design
thinking
stages: Empathi
ze, Test

Hotjar is a product
experience insights
platform with two parts:
1.Observe: including
Heatmap and Recording
tools to see how users
are clicking and
navigating
2.Ask: including Survey
and Feedback tools to
hear directly from users

The team at Spotahome empathizes with users by watching a Hotjar

2. UserZoom: is a cloud-based UX
research platform for conducting live user
interviews, card sorting, tree testing, and other
user research activities remotely.

Design thinking
stages: Empathize
, Test

An example live user interview conducted using

UserZoom
3. EnjoyHQ : from the UserZoom team, is a UX
research repository for importing, organizing, and
searching through user research data in one place

Design
thinking
stages: Define

User interview notes organized in

EnjoyHQ
4. Miro is an online collaborative whiteboard platform.

Design
thinking
stages: Define,
Ideate

A Miro whiteboard empathy map template,

5. MindMeister : is a cloud-based collaborative
mind mapping and brainstorming tool.

Design
thinking
stages: Ideate

A mind map exploring ways to increase feature usage, created in MindMeister

6. Figma : an online whiteboard for teams.

Design thinking
stages: Ideate,
Prototype, Test

An example prototype built in

Figma
7. InVision : is an online whiteboard and team
collaboration platform to brainstorm ideas and prototype
designs.

Design
thinking
stages: Ideate,
Prototype, Test

The InVision document dashboard

8. Balsamiq :

Design
thinking
stages: Prototy
pe

is wireframing software. You can download Balsamiq on Windows and Mac, or use Balsamiq
Cloud for collaborative online wireframing
9. Google Optimize : is a website experimentation
platform for creating A/B and multivariate tests.

Design
thinking
stages: Test

Creating a new experiment in Google Optimize

10. UserTesting : is a human insight platform
for remote user research and prototype tests.

Design
thinking
stages: Empathi
ze, Test

An example UserTesting session with video of a user navigating a mobile app

11. Maze : is a product research platform for
user research tests including prototype testing,
tree testing, and the 5-second test.

Design
thinking
stages: Empathi
ze, Test

An example user test created in Maze

Identifying Users and Understanding Their Needs
• To create effective solutions, designers must first identify their target customers
– those who stand to benefit from the design.
• This helps them focus on these users’ specific needs and desires rather than
attempting a generic product that may not be relevant or useful in any
meaningful way.
• When designers proactively understand what potential consumers need and
want, they can craft experiences designed with this user group specifically in
mind; offering real value.
• One of the most effective ways to understand user needs is to simply ask them.
• Conducting in-depth user interviews allows designers to better understand the
user’s needs, desires, and pain points.
• After the empathy stage and user research has taken place, designers create UX
Design artifacts like personas, user journeys, empathy maps, and storyboards.
• These artifacts help design thinkers to interpret the research data into
meaningful insights and get a deeper understanding of the customer journey
that can be shared with the team and referred to throughout the project.
 Observing User Behaviors in Context
• Understanding user behavior in its natural environment is key to
designing a successful product or service.
• Through direct observation, designers can understand how users use
the product and uncover their needs, pain points, and even
unintended uses.
• This allows for data-driven decisions tailored specifically to the user –
leading to more effective products or services with higher customer
satisfaction rates.
• To gain valuable insights into user behaviors, designers can use an
array of ethnographic research methods like contextual inquiry, diary
studies, user interviews, and usability testing.
• Contextual inquiry involves observing and interviewing users in their
natural environment while they’re performing their tasks.
• Diary studies are when we ask users to keep a diary of their activities
and interactions with a product or service for us to review with them
later.
• Interviews and usability testing involve speaking with users and
Using Storytelling to Connect with Users
• Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help us connect with
users on a deeper level.
• By crafting a compelling narrative and using storytelling
techniques, we can engage users in a way that goes beyond the
surface-level features and benefits of a product or service.
• Co-creating stories with users about their lived experiences is a
great way of encouraging the user to explore and share their
own experiences.
• We can then play these stories back to other customers to hear
how they resonate and where their experiences may differ.
• By developing stories with users, we not only get to benefit from
hearing their reflections and thought processes, but we get a
human centered UX Design artifact to share with our team and
stakeholders.
 Engaging in Dialogues with Users and Collecting
• Feedback
The number one way of getting to know your users is to simply speak with them.
• It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.
• By asking customers to reflect on their experiences and asking probing questions
along the way, we can deeply understand what matters to them the most.
• We can then use this information to decide what to design and how to design it.
• Two main approaches for speaking with users are, structured and unstructured
interviews.
• The best way to get to know your users is by speaking with them directly.
• Structured interviews are when you have a specific set of questions that you aim
to work through with each customer.
• Keeping your questions consistent allows you to collect data and compare the
user’s responses.
• This can be particularly useful when you need to be able to have a direct
comparison or collect quantitative data.
• Unstructured interviews are when you don’t follow a predetermined set of
questions. You engage in open-ended discussion with the user and let the
conversation flow naturally.
• Most interviews are a combination of both methods. The interviewer may prepare
a list of questions that acts as a guide but will also follow interesting lines of
Observational research methods (e.g.
• Observational research is a type of research method in
field studies, user interviews)
which researchers observe and record the behavior of
people, items, or in their natural environment.
• There are several popular observational research
methods, including:
• Naturalistic observation: This involves observing
subjects in their natural environment without
interference or manipulation.
• Participant observation: This involves becoming a part
of the group or community being studied and observing
their behaviors and interactions.
• Structured observation: This involves using a
predetermined set of rules or guidelines for observing
and recording behavior.
• Unstructured observation: This involves observing and
5 Steps to Implementing an
Empathy-Driven Design Approach
1. Define the problem clearly, by understanding users’ needs and
objectives
• A clearly defined customer problem is important because it serves as
the foundation for the entire design process.
• Without a clear understanding of the problem that needs to be solved,
it is difficult to create relevant and effective solutions.
• To define a problem in design thinking, the user and their needs must
be identified, the problem must be defined, and the problem statement
must be refined.
• This means understanding the user’s demographics, behaviors, needs,
and the gap between their current situation and their desired outcome.
• The final step is to create a clear and concise problem statement that
accurately captures the problem that needs to be solved.
2. Analyze user behaviors through
observation, interviews and surveys
• Observational research can help designers gain the clarity they need to
design effective solutions by providing insights into the user’s behaviors,
needs, and pain points.
• By observing users using a product or service, designers can identify
areas for improvement and create solutions that address the user’s
underlying problems.
• To plan and prepare to observe user behaviors, it is important to
determine the research question, the research design, the subjects, and
the data collection and analysis methods.
• It is also important to ensure that the research is conducted ethically and
that the subjects being observed are treated with respect and dignity.
• Finally, it’s important to have a clear plan for collecting, analyzing, and
reporting data.
3. Empathy mapping to gain insight into
users’ emotional responses associated with
the product or service
3. Empathy mapping to gain insight into
users’ emotional responses associated with
the product or service
• Uncovering what your user is thinking, feeling and needing can be a
challenge.
• An empathy map helps designers gain insight into their users’
perspectives by providing them with an organized visual representation
of the data they have gathered on that person.
• This tool allows teams to identify areas where innovation might take
place as well as build greater understanding for the needs and pain
points experienced by end-users – all in pursuit of creating tailored
solutions aligned with those experiences.
• To create an empathy map, use the empathy map canvas provided and
follow these steps: define who you’re mapping for, research relevant
insights about how this individual thinks, feels & behaves; categorize it
accordingly then develop a readable structure which visually displays
the information collected!
4. Create personas to better understand
user’s needs, behaviors, and motivations
• Personas are an invaluable tool for unlocking the user
experience.
• By creating detailed fictional characters, designers can
gain valuable insights into who their users are and what
drives them—helping inform product design decisions to
create better experiences for customers.
• The process of making a user persona begins with
collecting demographic data about the target audience:
identifying needs, goals, motivations and frustrations so
you have all angles covered when diving in to build your
ideal customer profile.
5. Gather feedback from users during
testing phases to validate solutions
• Good product or service design depends heavily on
understanding the users’ needs and experiences.
• That’s why user feedback during testing is so valuable – it
helps the UX Designer and Design Thinker, glean insights
that inform future iterations of their designs as well as
identify any problems early in the development process.
• Integrating a user research-driven approach to gathering
feedback ensures all relevant data points are collected,
analyzed, and used efficiently throughout the entire
design experience: from determining key questions to
setting up proper analysis methods for each stage of
testing.
8 tools to perform you
Empathize phase
1 — Challenge OVERVIEW
• This is the key information about the challenge you are
working for.
• We find a lot of data available online : online shopping
study, organic food habits study, organic food market
studies, etc.
2 — COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
• Know your competitors!
• What is working? What isn’t? What features do the
competitors have that our users will expect?
• What features are missing in the marketplace?
• For our competitor analysis, we have compared features
available or not on Naturalia and competitors website.
3 — MAP POSITIONNING
• This tools help you to determine your market
positioning strategy in comparaison to your competitor
strategy.
• Here is for Naturalia :
4 — PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Because design is about solving problems, we have to define our
problem statements. In this exercise we have to complete this
sentences :
• [Our service/product] was designed to achieve [ goal ].
• We have observed that the service/product is not meeting [list user
goals]
which is causing [list negative effects] to our business.
• How might we improve [service/product] so that our customers are
more
successful based on [these measurable criteria]?
• And this is what we do :
• Naturalia e-shop was designed to acquire new buyers. We have
observed that the current service is not appealing consumers and most
of the online shopping cart is empty. How might we improve our online
shopping service, so that our customer can spent more time, acquire
new type of client and have growth of on-line orders?
5 — HYPOTHESIS STATEMENT
• Every project starts with
assumptions. This tools help us to
determine it.
• We believe [doing this] for [these
people] will achieve [this
outcome]. We will know we are
[right/wrong] with [ qualitative
/quantitative feedback ]
• And this is what we do :
6 — QUANTITATIVE SURVEY
• “Surveys measure and categorize attitudes or collect self-reported
data that can help track or discover important issues to address.”
• So, we conduct a survey to help us to define 2 important questions
we have.
• What kind of products the organic shoppers buy? Do they shop
Organic Food online? Why?
• In one night we collected 190 answers.
• The results help us to learn that our target buys in priority fresh
biological products like fruit and vegetables, eggs. And the most
important, they never buy organic food online.
• 95% are Organic food customers
• 57% Buy at Naturalia
• 90% buy fresh organic food
• 90% never visited Naturalia website
7 — QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
• We have to understand our users needs and motivations
to design a great experience for them. Users interview is a
good way to get to know our users.
• Goals :
• To understand deeply users and habits of biological
consumers products (online & offline)
• Define the main pain points of buying fresh biological
product online
• How can we motivate Naturalia clients to buy online?
• As the result of this interviews, the most important
feedback was that our user doesn’t buy online because
they want to touch, smell and see fresh products they buy.
8 — EMPATHY MAPS
• An empathy map is a collaborative tool that teams can
use to gain a deeper insight into their customers. Much
like a user persona, an empathy map can represent a
group of users, such as a customer segment.
Golden Circle Design
Body Strom
Define Phase
• “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d
spend 55 minutes thinking about the
problem and five minutes thinking about
solutions.” – Albert Einstein
Explore Define Phase
• As a Design Thinker it need to cover all the points and answers that
got in the Empathize Phase.
• This is where the process of synthesis comes into picture.
• Clubbing all the answers together and convert them into a coherent
single statement Called Problem statement nothing but Define
Phase
• The first step towards defining a problem is to find who the user is,
what is his/her/their needs and then develop insights from the answers
• Think of ‘How might we?’ questions
• For example, ‘how might we motivate the employees in DT?’, ‘How
might to reduce the cost of knowledge transfer program without
compromising its quality and the mandatory pre-requisite resources?’
Explore Define Phase
• The following guidelines will help a design thinker to come up with ‘how might we’
questions.
• Amplify the good: A design thinker must think how to amplify the positive aspects
of the customers’ needs
• Eliminate the bad: Design thinkers need to remove all the bad elements observed
in the problem
• Explore the opposite: Design thinkers need to brainstorm on how to convert the
problem into an opportunity
• Question the Assumptions: This step involves questioning the assumption at hand
• Identify the Unexpected Resources: Design thinkers should try to find whether
some other resources not mentioned by the customer can be leveraged
• Create an Analogy: Design thinking also involves, among many other things, how
to create connections between the problem at hand and unrelated images
• Break the Problem into Pieces: This is where again analysis comes into picture
for a short while before the problem definition can be synthesized
 Mycoskie navigated the transition from the Empathize stage of
design thinking to the Define stage

• The transition between the Empathize and Define stages hinges on the concept of
unpacking
• unpacking tells the talking to, observing and learning about customers and creating a
system for turning those insights into something actionable
• Unpacking insights from the Empathize stage does not have to be a complicated process
• The tasks involved in synthesizing empathy and definition can be as simple as breaking
out a stack of sticky notes.
• The primary goal of the unpacking stage is sharing what that learned with other
designers and the rest of team members.
• It is important that everyone on the team is on the same page about the information
gathered in the Empathize stage.
• Having a complete understanding of the customer and his or her needs will help you
form a problem statement, which is a written expression of customer’s or end user’s
problem
Transition between the Empathize and Define stages

POV Statement
Story share-and-capture
Persona
State users’ needs and problems using
empathy methods
The Point of View (POV) and its purpose: written, actionable statement
• User need statements, also often called problem statements or point-of-view
statements, are the primary tool in the second stage of design thinking — the
define stage
• A good POV will allow you to ideate and solve your challenge in a goal-oriented
manner – keeping the focus on your users, their needs and your insights about
them
Turning user views into Insights
Steps for creating POV
Step 1: Identify Users, Needs & Insights
Step 2: Create Your Chart
Step 3: Form Your POV Statement
Story share-and-capture:
• Type in one of your findings into each “sticky note.” Each sticky note
should contain a short title that describes the finding. Organize your
sticky notes into groups based on a theme or pattern. Looking at these
groupings did you learn anything surprising or interesting?
Persona
• Persona development is to create user models –characters with a
clearly defined purpose and characteristics –who will represent your
target users
State users’ needs and problems using empathy methods

• User need statements also often called problem statements or

point of view statements, are the primary tool in the second stage
of design thinking -define stage. They align different points of
views before moving forward into ideating.
State users’ needs and problems using empathy methods

• During this phase, designer is wanting to organize their

research using a different lens, maps or frameworks.
• Empathy Map — organize by consumer thinking/feeling,
what they are experiencing and pains
• Customer Journey — organize along with how the
consumer shops or interacts with the product
• Point of View — focusses on your insights about your users
and their needs.
A good problem statement should thus have
the following traits.
• Human-centred. This requires you to frame your problem statement
according to specific users, their needs and the insights that your team has
gained in the Empathize phase.
• Broad enough for creative freedom. This means that the problem statement
should not focus too narrowly on a specific method regarding the
implementation of the solution. The problem statement should also not list
technical requirements, as this would unnecessarily restrict the team and
prevent them from exploring areas that might bring unexpected value and
insight to the project.
• Narrow enough to make it manageable. On the other hand, a problem
statement such as, “Improve the human condition,” is too broad and will
likely cause team members to easily feel daunted.