This article describes ways to connect with users during design thinking.

Image Credits: Camellia George

Connecting with users is not just talking to users over the phone, or online meetings, or even meeting them personally. We need to develop a deep understanding of the user lives and their unmet needs. Just remember these three words Empathy →Sympathy →Apathy before designing any product. As we all know that design thinking is not just thinking in terms of design, whereas it is “The ideology which asserts hands-on, user-centric approach to problem-solving can lead to innovation, and innovation can lead to differentiation and competitive advantage” — Nielsen Norman Group. The first step in the design thinking process is “Empathize”. Don’t believe me read this article and then judge me. Empathize is nothing but to conduct research and to develop a deep understanding of users.

How do we perform empathize?

This can be achieved by using “Empathy Maps”. This is a visualization that articulates what we know about the user. Using the empathy maps we can connect with the user:

We can listen to what they Say

We can watch what they do

We can ask them how they feel

We can ask them what they think

The words such as Says, Does, Feels and Thinks are actually the four quadrants of the Empathy Map.

Empathy Map

Sometimes the empathy map is not only given for the users to collect feedback. Also, the designers think in terms of the user's perspective and note down the possible questions. In the real world, empathy maps are often represented and described using sticky notes. The designers whenever they get new possible questions about the product, they write it down on the sticky note and paste in on the wall or the board.