Empathy Map 101
I am generally empathetic when I spend time with loved ones, give a stranger the benefit of the doubt, and, obviously, in UX design. It really works to my favor in creating an affinity map to synthesize my user interviews during project research.
In the Designlab Slack workspace, I saw some peer questions about Empathy Maps, and why/how to make them, so I thought I’d share what I learned from mentor. To me, this process makes logical sense and starts my user-centered work off with strength.
The Findings
It is a little tedious, but after conducting user interviews, I listened to each user interview and typed them out word for word (minus filler). There are transcript creation tools in Zoom & Otter, but I found them to be hard to go through. Reviewing the interviews also gave me space to notice if I was being leading (for future improvement) or listen to how someone was saying something. These transcripts should have no opinion, no insights, just the interviewee. This is now in a format for easy review.
The Map
Going transcript by transcript, I wrote out my sticky note data in Whimsical. I organized the notes by user (color coded) and started with quadrants shared by the Nielson Norman Group. In addition to saving paper and wallspace, I did it while I was traveling, so it was easy to keep contained. I do like post-its on a wall so that I can see everything at once (and that’s a great way to have a group create the map together). Once they are written out and taped up, it’s time for organizing!
Patterns
I ended up clustering patterns by topic in those quadrants. Next, I picked the 3–4 patterns with the most frequency to further review. This is because they show the most commonality among potential users, and therefore, the highest priority for the largest audience. I took each pattern individually for review.
Insights
What does each pattern show? I found it easy to get carried away and go too far with the result and had to reign it in. To continue being data driven, it was important to keep the insight clear and singular. If there was an “and” in my insight, I was either trying to combine two smaller patterns, or putting my assumptions back into the mix. I repeat, keep that insight singular. One pattern, one insight, one need.
Needs
What does that insight tell us that the user needs? This is where I used my empathy. I determined that because of my insight based on a certain pattern, the user needs certain tools or ways to accomplish tasks.
User Persona
These 3–4 user needs went directly into my persona, who encompasses the largest patterns of my findings. I’ve also used them to create a User Type instead of a persona. I have been told that it’s often untimely to create a full-fledged persona for each agile iteration- but get those needs on paper!
POV/Problem Statements
I created my problem statements in point of view and How Might We questions using the exact insights and needs from my empathy map. It is a logical path to create these statements based on the data that I sourced from that long interview process. How Might We is the beginning of thinking about the solution. Up until now, I’ve been focusing only on the user problems.
Overview:
Example from my recent project:
I find this process helpful to understand not only what I am doing, but why. It helps me have strength behind how I can defend my decisions based on data. If this helps you, or you need more clarification, let me know!
