User experience, at its best, is about empathy with the people who use the products and services we design. We are asked to understand the user perspectives and what they need to have satisfying and successful experiences. We are called upon to be user advocates. We generally acknowledge the importance of understanding our users' points of view. Why, then, are we so generally bad at empathy? This short spotlight talk shares my personal journey (so far) in trying to answer that question and to find ways to improve my own empathy.
2. “I think you all really care a lot about
empathy. I think you all really know that
it’s important. I just don’t think you are
always very good at it.”
~ Karen McGrane
IA Summit 2013 Closing Plenary
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2013/10/18/ia-summit-2013-karen-mcgranes-closing-plenary/
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4. Sympathy
Pity
Kindness
Happy for
Any emotional reaction to
someone’s situation
What empathy is not...
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5. GreaterGood: Ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled
with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking
or feeling.
Merriam-Webster: the feeling that you understand and share
another person's experiences and emotions; the ability to share
someone else's feelings
What is empathy?
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6. Affective empathy: sensations and feelings we get in response to
others’ emotions
Cognitive empathy: ability to identify and understand other
peoples’ emotions
Emotional intelligence: the ability to monitor one's own and
other people's emotions
Variations on a theme
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7. A mindful, intellectual process for
sharing an emotional connection
with another person
My working definition of empathy
8. Biologically wired to care
Empathy #stc14 - K. Bachmann 8
Limbic System by Bruce Blaus (Wikimedia Commons)
14. Business vs. Empathy
“But you were always a good man of business,
Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to
apply this to himself.
‘Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands
again. “Mankind was my business; charity,
mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all
my business. The deals of my trade were but a
drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of
my business!”
~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XNKe1cGucY 18:26
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15. A remedial course
“Empathy is intuitive, but is also something
you can work on, intellectually.”
~Tim Minchin
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16. Innovation and creativity emerges from caring about people
facing problems
Empathy is critical to economic innovation
Trust economy is about people
Sharing economy is about trust
Communication is harder and more critical than ever and
empathy builds connections
Why do we need to
return to empathy?
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17. Wired: A related example
How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other
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18. Change our language
Use the language of people we engage with
Take care of the people you engage with in how we talk to
them and of them
Change our approaches
Spend time really immersed in the “problem space”
Change ourselves
Practice empathy
How?
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19. Users, certainly
Teams and collaborators
Partners and extended
teams
Peers and colleagues
Everyone?
Mankind is my business
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“I believe empathy is
the most essential
quality of civilization.”
~ Robert Ebert
20. Actively listen, don’t judge
Read stories, real stories, of people you engage with
Expose yourself to more people regularly – be curious
Model, mirror, imagine
Be mindful and correct yourself, but don’t recriminate
What we can do
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23. Chimamanda Adichie, Single Story
Center for Building a Culture of Empathy, How to Build a Culture of Empathy?
Bobby K. Cheon, Vani A. Mathur, Joan Y. Chiao, Empathy as cultural process:
insights from the cultural neuroscience of empathy
Kevin Dulle, Apathy to Empathy: A Business Shift
Will Evans, Design Ethnography for Lean Teams
Greater Good: Empathy
Robert Lee Hotz, Tracing the Origins of Human Empathy
Megan Kapera, Why Empathy is Good Business
Roman Krznaric on Greater Good, Six habits of highly empathetic people
Readings
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Unlike most references in a slide deck, this list is not citations as much as some of the resources
that I’ve found interesting and useful at this point in my personal journey with developing
empathy. I hope that you find them helpful in your own journey.
24. Selwa Luke, How To Care: Three Empathy Building Exercises For Work And Home
Karen McGrane, IA Summit 2013 Closing Plenary: Slides and Audio
Don Norman, Error Messages are Evil
Dev Patnaik, Innovation Starts with Empathy
Jeremy Rifkin, ‘The Empathic Civilization’: Rethinking Human Nature in the
Biosphere Era
Skills you need: What is empathy?
Jason Tanz, How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other
Reading to come: Indi Young, Practical Empathy
Empathy #stc14 - K. Bachmann 24
Readings