Did you know that users are more likely to choose, buy and use products that meet their needs as opposed to products that just meet their wants? An Empathy map will help you understand your user’s nee...
Empathy Mapping Research
I have started to create my user personas and from here I want to start thinking about empathy maps. I have never created an empathy map before. I don’t think I had ever heard of one until this year which means I need to do some research into what these maps actually do and how they can help me understand my users.
I found this article which has helped me understand a little better.
Did you know that users are more likely to choose, buy and use products that meet their needs as opposed to products that just meet their wants?
According to this article, an empathy map allows us to understand the user's needs and develop a deeper understanding of the type of user personas we are designing for.
An Empathy Map consists of four sections these reflect key traits the user demonstrates/possessed during the research stage. These four sections are said, did, thought and felt.
The article goes on to talk about a few best practices which would be helpful for me to understand how I should start going about creating these empathy maps.
Best Practices
Step 1 is to Fill out the Empathy Map the key points I took from this step are:
Review your notes, pictures, audio, and video from your research and fill out each of the four quadrants while defining and synthesising:
What did the user SAY? Write down significant quotes and keywords that the user said.
What did the user DO? Describe which actions and behaviours you noticed or insert pictures or drawing.
What did the user THINK? Dig deeper. What do you think that your user might be thinking? What are their motivations, their goals, their needs, their desires? What does this tell you about his or her beliefs?
How did the user FEEL? What emotions might your user be feeling? Take subtle cues like body language and their choice of words and tone of voice into account.
Then step 2 is Synthesise NEEDS the key points and what I think I am going to follow are:
Identify needs directly from the user traits you noted. Identify needs based on contradictions between two traits, such as a disconnection between what a user says and what the user does.
Use the American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to help you understand and define which underlying needs your user has. In 1943, Maslow published his paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation, ” in which he proposed that human needs form a hierarchy that can be visualised in the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental physiological levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top. Maslow suggested that humans must first fulfil their most basic physiological needs, such as eating and sleeping, before fulfilling higher-level needs such as safety, love, esteem and finally self-actualisation. The most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire or focus motivation on the higher-level needs. For example, if you’re starving, it doesn’t matter if you’re the world’s leading User Experience designer, because eventually, your hunger is going to overwhelm any satisfaction you get from your professional status. That’s why we naturally seek to stabilise the lowest level of the hierarchy that is uncertain before we try to retain higher levels.
Consult all five layers in Maslow’s Pyramid to help you define which needs your user is primarily focused on fulfilling. Start reflecting on how your product or service can help fulfil some of those needs.
Write down your user’s needs.
Below I have included the Maslows Pyramid:
Then the last step 3 which is Synthesise INSIGHTS
This step involves “Insight” which is the moment you realise you can help solve the current design problem your facing. For me, this would be trying to create one place for designers to organise their research and design news. To achieve this I should look synthesise major insights, especially contradictions between two user attributes. This could be by taking from looking through my different sections. You can also synthesise insights by asking yourself: “Why?” when you notice strange, tense, or surprising behaviour.
