To design meaningful and influential experiences, UX practitioners must delve deeply into the psyche of their target audience—and empathy mapping is a powerful tool that enables a holistic understanding of users’ needs, behaviours, and emotions.
This technique has gained significant traction in recent years, and in this article, we will examine the concept of empathy mapping, its significance in UX design, the components of an empathy map, and the procedure for constructing one.
What is empathy mapping?
Empathy mapping is a collaborative visualisation and design thinking technique that helps UX practitioners articulate what they know about a particular type of user. It externalises user knowledge in order to curate a shared deeper understanding of user needs and aid in decision-making.
Its visual representation, known as an empathy map, serves as a bridge between the product team and stakeholders, allowing them to step into the user’s shoes and see the world from their perspective.
An empathy map is usually divided into four quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels. Each quadrant represents a different aspect of the user’s perspective. The user or persona is placed in the centre of the map.
- The Says quadrant comprises the user’s verbal expressions during interviews and usability studies, capturing their direct quote during research.
- The Thinks quadrant focuses on what the user is thinking throughout the experience, revealing their mental process and what matters to them. This also uncovers spoken users’ thoughts.
- The Does quadrant encompasses the user’s actions and behaviors, providing insight into their physical interactions. It reveals how users behave, what actions they take and sheds light on their goals and challenges.
- The Feels quadrant represent is the user’s emotional state. For example, how they feel about the experience range from excitement, fear, anger, etc.
What is empathy mapping vs user journey mapping?
Empathy mapping and user journey mapping are both tools that help UX practitioners gain a better understanding of their users; however, their purposes and formats are distinct.
A user journey map essentially depicts a user’s interaction with a product or service over time. This helps UX practitioners identify pain points, opportunities, and moments of delight along the user’s journey. It also serves to align various stakeholders with the needs and expectations of the user.
In contrast, an empathy map is a snapshot of the user’s mental state at a particular time. It does not depict the events or interactions leading up to that juncture. It focuses on the internal state of the user as opposed to their external behaviour.
In essence, it enables UX practitioners to empathise with and comprehend the user’s perspective. It also facilitates the generation of hypotheses and insights regarding the user’s problems and solutions.
Why is empathy mapping important in UX design?
Empathy mapping plays a crucial role in UX design as it helps UX practitioners develop user-centred solutions. By fostering empathy, UX practitioners can go beyond assumptions and gain genuine insights into user needs and behaviours. Here are a few reasons why empathy mapping is essential:
- User-centric design: Empathy mapping encourages a user-centric approach, ensuring that design decisions are grounded in real user insights rather than assumptions.
- Emotional understanding: By capturing users’ emotions, empathy mapping helps UX practitioners understand the underlying motivations and triggers that influence user behaviour
- Identifying pain points: Empathy mapping allows UX practitioners to identify pain points, frustrations, and unmet needs, leading to more effective problem-solving.
- Effective communication: Empathy maps serve as a visual and tangible tool to communicate user insights across the design team, stakeholders, and clients, fostering a shared understanding.
What are the components of an empathy map?
Persona
Fundamentally, a persona is a fictional representation of a typical or ideal user based on real data and research. A persona helps UX practitioners create a realistic and relatable picture of who they are designing for.
A persona usually includes:
- A name and a photo
- Demographic information such as gender, age, location, education, occupation
- Behavioural information such as goals, tasks, pain points, preferences
- Psychographic information like personality traits, values, attitudes
A persona should be placed in the centre of an empathy map to remind UX practitioners who they are empathising with.
Read: Guide to Creating User Personas for UX
Quadrants
As mentioned earlier, an empathy map is divided into four quadrants: Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels. Each quadrant represents a different aspect of the persona’s perspective.
To fill in each quadrant, UX practitioners should use data and evidence from various sources such as interviews, surveys, observations, analytics, etc. They should also use sticky notes or markers to write down short phrases or keywords that capture what the persona says, thinks, does, and feels.
Insights
Insights are key findings or learnings that emerge from analysing the data in each quadrant. In practice, they help UX practitioners understand why the persona behaves or feels a certain way. To generate insights, UX practitioners should look for patterns, themes, contradictions, or surprises in each quadrant.
They should also ask questions, such as:
- What does this data tell us about the persona?
- What are their underlying motivations or beliefs?
- What are their pain points or challenges?
- What are their opportunities or desires?
- How do they differ from other personas or segments?
Note: Insights should be written down as statements that summarise or interpret what was observed or heard.
Needs
Needs are problems or goals that the persona wants to solve or achieve. Needs help UX practitioners to define what value they can provide to the persona.
To identify needs, UX practitioners should look for gaps or opportunities in each quadrant. They should also ask questions, such as:
- What does this persona need to do or have?
- What are their expectations or requirements?
- What are their frustrations or obstacles?
- How can we help them overcome or avoid them?
- How can we delight them or exceed their expectations?
Needs should be written down as statements that express what the persona wants or expects from a product or service.
How to create an empathy map?
Creating an empathy map is a collaborative process that involves several steps:
1. Identify your personas
To create an empathy map, start by identifying the personas or user groups you want to understand better. Personas represent the archetypal users who will interact with your product or service. Next, develop a clear understanding of their demographic information, goals, motivations, and pain points.
2. Conduct user research
User research is a critical step in empathy mapping. Engage in qualitative research methods such as interviews, surveys, and observations to gather insights directly from your target users. Understand their needs, frustrations, and desires to gain a comprehensive understanding of their experiences.
3. Enlist empathy map questions
The third step is to enlist questions that will guide you in filling out each quadrant of your empathy map. You can use generic questions, such as:
- What does this persona say during an interview or a usability test?
- What does this persona think about their problem or goal?
- What does this persona do when they use our product or service?
- How does this persona feel about their experience?
Or you can use more specific questions based on your research objectives, such as:
- What does this persona say about our competitors?
- What does this persona think about our value proposition?
- What does this persona do when they encounter an error message?
- How does this persona feel when they complete a task?
You should write down these questions on sticky notes or markers and place them in each quadrant of your empathy map.
4. Fill in the empathy map
Once you have gathered the research data and insights from user interviews, surveys, or observations, it’s time to fill in each section of the empathy map. Here is a clear step-by-step guide to help you through the process:
a. Says:
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- Review the direct quotes, statements, or feedback collected during user research.
- Identify the most relevant and representative quotes that capture the users’ perspectives.
- Write these quotes or statements in the “Says” section of the empathy map.
- Use sticky notes or a digital tool to organise and arrange the quotes.
b. Thinks:
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- Analyse the data and observations to understand the underlying thoughts, motivations, goals, and concerns of the users.
- Identify recurring themes or patterns related to their thoughts and mindset.
- Write down the key thoughts or internal dialogues of the users in the “Thinks” section of the empathy map.
- Use concise phrases or keywords to capture the essence of their thoughts.
c. Feels:
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- Reflect on the emotional experiences expressed or observed during user research.
- Identify the range of emotions that users go through during their journey.
- Write down the emotions users feel in the “Feels” section of the empathy map.
- Be specific and descriptive to capture the nuances of their emotional states.
d. Does:
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- Consider the actions, behaviours, and interactions observed or reported by the users.
- Identify the key behaviours and actions that users take while engaging with the product or service.
- Write down these behaviours in the “Does” section of the empathy map.
- Use action-oriented language to describe what users do and how they interact.
Remember, an empathy map is a collaborative tool, so, ensure to collaboratively involve the design team, stakeholders, and even users themselves in filling in the map. This is because it’s important to have diverse perspectives and insights to create a comprehensive and accurate representation.
5. Analyse and Interpret
The fifth step is to analyse and interpret your empathy map by generating insights and identifying needs. You can utilise sticky notes or markers to write statements summarising or explaining what you learned from each quadrant.
You should look for patterns, themes, contradictions, surprises, etc. and also ask questions such as why, how, so what, etc., to understand your persona’s perspective.
Conclusion
All things considered, empathy mapping is an invaluable technique in UX design that allows UX practitioners to deeply understand users and create human-centred experiences.
By cultivating empathy, UX practitioners can bridge the gap between user expectations and design solutions, gaining valuable insights into user needs, emotions, and behaviours— leading to more impactful and successful designs.
Reach out to us at Netizen Experience for creating empathy maps for your next project!
