Design thinking is ubiquitous. More and more companies are employing full time user researchers, even entire user research departments. Most of us agree that in order to deliver experiences that meet our users’ needs, that delight them and help them achieve their goals, we need to start by deeply understanding them. We need to develop empathy. So we visit users in their homes. We actively listen. We ask indirect questions. We observe. We create stimuli and games that help users reveal their unarticulated needs. We make meaning of the data. We produce compelling videos. We create personas that communicate user needs, behaviors and goals in the form of an individual with a face and a name. While all of these activities are incredibly important and valuable, we can go farther. We can feel our users’ pain. We can literally walk miles in their shoes. We can be authentically empathetic. Drawing on lessons from empathy pioneers like Patty Moore and Jane Fulton-Suri, this talk will explore the creative techniques that designers find to develop extreme empathy, and make the case that all of us can and should find ways to feel our users – and why it matters.

1. Can you feel me now?
Accessible experiments in empathy

2. Got UX Research?

11. Picture of IDEO guy waxing, Kristian Srimsarian
in hospital

18. Picture of IDEO guy waxing, Kristian Srimsarian
in hospital

23. MAKES ME LOOK SMARTMAKES ME LOOK STUPID
INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY
DECREASES PRODUCTIVITY

25. THANK YOU