Why should designers care about empathy? Because it is the first step in developing a meaningful design solution.

1. THE EMPATHIC DESIGNER:
WHY YOUR NEXT GREAT DESIGN IDEA
WON’T COME FROM YOU
November 7, 2014 - Sony Centre Strategy Room
Association of Registered Graphic Designers

5. In the end its one of the last survivng replicants saves Decker
as he’s trying to kill him.
The Replicant was more empathic than the human.
Blade Runner is an emapthy Fable. Of what it means to be
human. And what it means to be empathic.

9. The psychopathic designer test
 Glibness/superficial charm
 Grandiose sense of self worth
 Pathological lying
 Cunning/manipulative
 Lack of remorse or guilt
 Shallow affect – shallow emotional life
 Callous/lack of empathy
 Failure to accept responsibility
 Need for stimulation
 Parasitic lifestyle
 Poor behavioral control
 Impulsivity
 Irresponsibility
 Promiscuous
 Many short term relationships

10. SO, WHY SHOULD DESIGNERS
CARE ABOUT EMPATHY?

11. The New Designer
• Complexity
• Collaborative
• Context
• Accountability

12. The New Designer
• Trust
• Honesty
• Dignity

13. EMPATHY
Audience need
LOGIC
Business goals
DESIGN
THINKING

14. Value Creation
Innovation Experience
Empathy

25. Understand
context
Business and
audience
need
Idea
generation
Build,
combine,
explore
Review, test,
select

38. Topography of design research – Sanders 2008

45. Try this at home
5 Easy activities to introduce collaboration into your design process

49. EMPATHY: Understanding the audience perspective
Image from Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

50. DEFINE: What is their challenge?

51. Understanding the audience
• Projective
techniques
– Drawing the
experience

52. Understanding the audience
• Projective
techniques
– Drawing the
experience

53. Understanding the audience
• Projective
techniques
– Drawing the
experience

54. Understanding the audience
• Projective
techniques
– Drawing the
experience

57. IDEATE: Divergent thinking.

58. PROTOTYPE: How do they see it?

59. Valued Words
Quick, new, fun, spontaneous, reliable, clean, accommodating,
flexible, open and friendly
Step One: Build vocabulary

60. Step three: Collect images

61. Step three: Distill images
Valued Words
Quick, new, fun, spontaneous, reliable, clean, accommodating,
flexible, open and friendly

64. What if?

67. Monadic Approach
A means for testing multiple design options
• Two groups of people
• Each group reviews one of the design options
• Compare the responses
TEST: How do we evaluate design success

69. Understanding the client’s mission & vision
Collaborative Activity 1: The Random Serial Killer Test
If someone were to buy the company at a
generous price, guarantee that the employees
would maintain their salaries albeit in a different
industry, and that the buying company would
destroy the firm and eliminate all its offerings,
causing the company to no longer exist, would you
accept the offer?
Why, or why not?

70. DEFINE:
Identifying client goals
Defining business focus
This exercise answers the question
“Given our resources, what should
we do?
Step 1: List top five goals
Step 2: Rank for importance and feasibility
Step 3: Chart points on the grid

71. DEFINE:
Understanding the competition
Step 1: Determine what
is important to the
audience in this category
Step 2: Rank yourself
And your competitors
Step 3: Chart on a graph
Step 4: Identify points of
differentiation
Competitive analysis
Differentiation is about expressing a unique value that is meaningful to the target audience

72. People support
what they help create.
Empathy > Value > Innovation > Competitive advantage

73. Shameless promotion
Published by
Available at:
Dave Holston
The Strategic Designer
www.the-strategic-designer.com
dave@the-strategic-designer.com