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| Empathy Maps |
Empathy Maps
Empathy mapping is a tool used to anticipate the thoughts, emotions, needs, and reactions of an interface user. They can be used along with user personas in User Experience Research at the beginning of the design process, in order to determine what problems the user is facing, and how the interface design can help resolve them.
It is a major component of user-centered design. What does the user need and want? What challenges stand between the user and his or her goals? In User Experience design, empathy is achieved by conducting user research and using it as a roadmap to guide design decisions.
Empathy Maps, like personas, are done at the beginning of the design process. They are used to synthesize user research to create a realistic, yet fictional, user representation. Empathy Maps are quick to sketch out and, though the content of the empathy map may change, common content areas include:
Empathy maps work best when researchers make them after conducting user interviews. Empathy mapping sessions benefit from a diverse range of team members: stakeholders, customer support leads, vendors, product developers, salespeople, and copywriters.
- User Image - Since empathy maps are usually done quickly, you can include a small sketch of your user in the center of the map.
- Thinking - What are the user’s motivations, goals, desires?
- Doing - What action is your user taking? What is their behavior like?
- Saying - What is he or she saying? Does it conflict with their actions? Use quotes and keywords.
- Feeling - What emotions is your user feeling?
- Pains - Are there any problems your user is facing?
- Gains - What are the positive outcomes your user is hoping for?
Empathy maps may vary slightly, but this is the format you’ll see quite often. Once your map is complete, you can use it to discern your user’s needs.
