Utilising Empathy Mapping to Understand how our Users Feel

It is our job to advocate on behalf of the user, to do this we must understand the needs of each user. We look at what a user might say, think, feel and do. We can utilise an empathy map at various stages of the design process, to find specific insights into micro and macro areas of an experience, for example we could look at a user that wants to buy a tv or a user that is interesting in amending their subscription type for a service, each can provide insight to our user.

What is an Empathy Map

For example, we could look at how a user reacts to finding a product on an e-commerce site. They might say that “they don’t know where to look”, “I’m struggling to find the right product category” or “I feel stuck”. In addition to this they might think that “this is annoying” or “am I the problem?”, which might make them feel, confused, frustrated or impatient. Finally we consider what they do, are they searching around the store, do they utilise the search function, are they utilising product filters?

Conflicting findings

We might find that areas of our map juxtapose between one another, this can mean that certain areas conflict one another, when this happens it is key to understand why there is a divide between how the user reacts to a part of our product, and what is causing it.

How these findings benefit our research

Each of these give us a look into how our user experiences our product or service. We can utilise these findings to inform our decisions and create improvements specific to our user needs.

When to utilise Empathy Mapping

We can utilise empathy mapping at the start of a project and during it, whether we are looking to find immediate insight into where we can improve a product or service or throughout a project to maintain user aligned enhancement.