When designers embark on UX projects, they need to have a singular focus on users who are at the centre of their work. Certainly, there’s creativity and self-expression in the design process but it is not the main thing. What’s more important is understanding users—their needs and wants—and the best way to accomplish this is to make strategic use of two investigative tools available for harvesting this information: empathy and user research.
Simply put, empathy is getting in touch with other people’s feelings, and becoming sensitive and aware of their emotions and intrinsic motivations. Seeing the world through their eyes, setting aside our own assumptions and preconceived notions to really understand the reasons behind their behaviours. At Pivot Design Group, we’re obsessed with user satisfaction, so empathizing is a critical skill in our quest for looking deeper into situations and coming up with design solutions that are more user-centric. Engaging in empathy skills is how we really connect with our users and comprehend their points of view.
User research means getting into the weeds of your target audience—understanding their preferences and idiosyncrasies and how their emotions and experiences interact—pointing the way to the optimal engagement.
In other words, empathy gives us understanding and user research is our method for harvesting the data. When you put them together, these twin skills empower us as designers to create products, services and experiences that work well, look and feel good and function in the way that their users really want them to do.