1. Mahir Önder Alkaya
IO 1304615
Strategic Product Design
m.o.alkaya@gmail.com
ABSTRACT Furthermore, the emotional state of a person could
Developing empathy for the user is an essential part of hinder him/her in the process. This suggests that the
user-centered design. While preferable this complex situation to a large degree determines the level of
process should be executed by a multi-disciplinary team empathy which can be achieved. [2] Some sources even
including social scientist, most projects do not have the go as far as describing empathy as an effort, namely:
recourses to do so. Therefore several tools have been “The effort to see the world through the eyes of others,
developed to aid designers in their process. One of understand the world through their experiences, and
these tools, the “Empathy Map” tool for creating feel the world through their emotions”. The level of
personas, is discussed in this article. This tool was used empathy gained through this effort can then be divided
by the author in a project during his education at the in five stadia. [1]
Industrial Design Engineering faculty of the TU Delft.
This article also contains a brief review of this project 1. Functional
and concludes with recommendations for improvement 2. Cognitive
of the tool based on several books, articles and other
literature about the topic. 3. Emotional
4. Social
Keywords
5. Cultural
Personas, Empathy, Tool evaluation, Customer insight,
User-centered design Ideally, to gain profound empathy (up to level four or
five including insight of interactions between levels), a
Topic nr 1.12; Persona’s process of four steps is followed: Discovery,
INTRODUCTION Immersion, Connection and Detachment. Where
Successful innovation requires a deep understanding of respectively the designer enters the user‟s world,
customers including their environment, daily routines, wanders around in his/her shoes, understands and
concerns and aspirations. However, even though connects with the user and finally detaches with more
companies invest heavily in market research, they often insight and empathy. [2] One can imagine that this
wind up neglecting the customer‟s perspective when process preferably requires a team of highly skilled
designing. [4] Not every company has the (human) social staff. Unfortunately, not every design team has
resources or the know-how to hold interviews or this privilege. Therefore a series of tools and techniques
extensive focus groups with their customers. have been developed for designers to gain more
Furthermore, asking the customers what they need isn‟t empathy for their targeted audience when talking to- or
always helpful. Like Henry Ford once said: “If I had observing the customer is not possible. The tool which
asked my customers what they wanted, they would have is discussed in this article is the “empathy map” tool
told me a faster horse”. and it serves to develop personas to help the design
team in their process.
Empathy
The adjective „empathic‟ in relation to design was Personas
introduced in the late 1990‟s when companies started to A persona is the representation of a typical (fictional)
realize that only listening to customer‟s responses on person from within the target audience. It is an
questionnaires was not enough to develop successful archetype which can be used to guide decisions in the
products. [2] Empathy can best be described as an design process. A persona typically consists of general
ability or a mental habit of a person to identify with- demographic factors combined with more specific data,
and understand another person‟s feelings, ideas and like hobbies, marital status, ambitions etc. Furthermore,
circumstances. [1] The willingness of a person to a persona is context specific, meaning it often contains
empathize however also plays a large role in the data which is valuable in one context, but close to
process. A person could be more willing to empathize valueless in another. [3, 6] A typical persona can be
with another due to his/her personal connection or due seen in figure 1.
to his/her high commitment to a (design) project.
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2. Figure 1. A Persona developed for demolition/renovation
services
THE “EMPATHY MAP” TOOL The Burger King adventure
The visual thinking company “X-Plane” has developed The outcome of the project was a plan to gradually
a tool for designers to aid them in creating valuable change the strategy of Burger King in 10 years, thereby
persona‟s to guide their process. According to the aligning their touchpoints to suit the new segments. The
company, this tool helps to go beyond a customer‟s new roadmap was guided by keeping the rough image
demographic characteristics and develop a better of the fast food chain, while gradually focusing more on
understanding of their environment, behavior, concerns transparency, wellbeing and health. The “adventure”
and aspirations. [4] theme was chosen to communicate the new strategy;
Co-branding and cooperating with the discovery
The tool is used within a workshop setting. First, the channel was (among others) a part of this strategy.
participants brainstorm about interesting customer
segments to look at (if that is not clear already). Then The context of the course was defined differently for
the pre-designed sheet is filled in with post-its about both new segments, because for one segment the social
several aspects of the imagined person. The participants contacts were more important than for the other. The
do this by consulting their own experiences and by context for Henk (the middle aged father), for example,
building upon the comments of others. After the included his worries for his children and his social
workshop the sheets is summarized into characteristics, contacts with his wife. Emily represented the single
hobbies, occupation etc. to form a persona. The sheet career minded modern woman, so mainly individual
and the to-be-answered questions of this tool can be considerations were found relevant for her decision of
seen in figure 2. nutrition‟s. Therefore the boundaries of the context
slightly differed per persona. Geographically however,
EXPERIENCE WITH THE TOOL the focus was mainly on the Netherlands.
The tool was used by the author of this article within
the course of Brand & Product Strategy which is a part EVALUATION
of the master Strategic Product Design. The client was The tool provided the team with some more insight
Burger King and the aim of the project was to develop a about the new segments, mainly till level four of the
new strategy to attract new customer segments to the earlier mentioned ladder (because the tool does not
fast food chain. Their current focus was mainly on men focus on the cultural context). The gained insight
between the age of 18 and 34; it was therefore decided broadened the scope of every individual team member
to explore two new segments, namely: Young career with the experiences of the other team members. Every
minded women (Emily) and middle aged fathers of individual namely has his/her own unique experiences
young children (Henk). In order to do this, a workshop and these define his/her empathic horizon. To develop
was organized to create two personas using the empathy is, naturally, an individual act. However,
discussed tool. The session was facilitated by one discussing the several experiences (for example in a
person who made sure all the questions (which are workshop setting) triggers everyone to make more
shown in figure 2) were answered. connections, which led to an increased understanding.
[2]
2

3. Figure 2. The Empathy Map tool; developed by X-Plane
The drawback of the tool is however that no actual on. This is an essential part at the start of the workshop
people of the studied group are involved. Furthermore, which works well to create curiosity and motivation.
the tool does not involve any activities to stimulate the
According to Kouprie M and Visser FS, the connection
designer to become the user for a while (like role-
phase is where the designer connects with the user by
playing). Therefore the designer mainly stays beside the
recalling explicitly upon his/her own memories and
user and develops an understanding of him/her which is
experiences in order to reflect and be able to create an
rather shallow and limited to his/her own experiences
understanding. [2] One could conclude that the
and that of the other participants. So the designers
discussed tool mainly focuses on this phase and jumps
develop (more or less) only the cognitive dimension of
directly to it after the discovery phase. Therefore the
empathy till the social level (of the earlier mentioned
Immersion phase (where the designer walks around in
ladder).
the shoes of the user) is fairly neglected. Without this
The willingness to empathize is created in the discovery phase the knowledge about the user‟s world does not
phase where the team discusses which segment to focus increase significantly, since the designer does not have
3

4. the time to explicitly wander around and to immerse The recommendations for improvement of the
without making judgments and implementations. “Empathy map” tool are summarized in figure 3. They
can be implemented by designers and/or other members
CONCLUSION of (product) development teams to develop more
Some activities do not involve all phases of the process profound empathy with their users. Be aware though
naturally. [2] This tool mainly misses two aspects, of that the tool on its self is a communication tool to create
which one is reflection [3]. The tool does not involve an personas. Keep in mind that many other factors play a
aspect in which the designer is triggered to reflect on role in gaining profound empathy with another and that
the results of the project using the outcome of this tool, the tool does not prescribe how to use the personas
which is a persona. Furthermore, the tool does not within the whole of the project. For example, a
involve any suggestions on how to use the outcome at reflection at the end of the project to see if the result fits
all. This is not a major drawback however, because it the persona is highly recommended, but is merely one
does not explicitly claim to do so either. It is mainly a way to use the gained insight within the project.
communication tool to create personas when direct
contact is not possible. [2] The second missing aspect REFERENCES
however is a major drawback which leads to un- 1. Brown T, Change by design: How design
profound understanding of the users instead of strong thinking transforms organizations and inspires
empathy, namely the lack of emphasis on the innovation, Harper Collins publishers 2009,
immersion phase. New York, P. 49 – 62
2. Kouprie M and Visser F S, A framework for
Recommendations for improvement
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an aspect to the tool in which the designer gets user‟s life, Journal of Engineering Design,
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by adding a sensitizing period before the actual 3. McQuaid H L et al, When you can‟t talk to
workshop (similar to the context mapping method), in customers: Using storyboards and narratives to
which the designer can take his/her time to go through elicit empathy for users, Context and
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experiences of people. [5] This sensitizing period could
consist of an assignment about the targeted audience or 4. Osterwalder A and Pigneur Y, Business Model
of studying literature including already performed Generation, Self published 2010, P. 126 – 133
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about one or two weeks and it enhances the quality and Context mapping: a hands-on introduction,
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To improve the connection after having gone through a Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering TU
profound discovery and immersion phase (like Delft, P. 25-50
suggested), a role playing game could be included to
the tool. Role playing, when properly executed, 6. Warfel T Z, data driven design research;
facilitates one‟s ability to understand another person‟s Personas, Messagefirst
affective behavior and understand how another person http://www.slideshare.net/toddwarfel/data-
views the world. This is a good way to connect with a driven-design-research-personas
person with whom direct contact is not possible, using
one‟s own experience. One should be aware though that
having insight in (qualitative) user data, gained in the
discovery and immersion phase, is therefore essential.
[2]
4 Figure 3. Recommendations for improvement