Walk a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes:

A Guide to Empathy

Brian Flaherty | Reading time: about 8 min

How well do you know your users? Chances are, not as well as you think. And even for the best designers, it’s easy to assume one knows best how to solve a design problem. But that can get you into trouble. 

When making assumptions about users and what they need, you risk misunderstanding what the real problem is—potentially solving a problem that didn’t need to be solved in the first place. 

That’s where Human-Centered Design (HCD) comes in. HCD helps center the user in the design process so that every design choice meets a real human need. And a crucial and fundamental component to practicing HCD is “Empathy”. 

Here’s how.  

HCD is a creative and recursive process for understanding users, challenging assumptions, and developing innovative solutions to prototype and test. And while different frameworks for HCD (or design thinking) as a continuous improvement philosophy exist, they all place a fundamental focus on customer empathy and engagement as a means of solving the right problem—the right way.

Here, in the CCSQ HCD Center of Excellence, we adhere to a six-phase process.

Regardless of which HCD framework you choose to adopt, empathizing typically falls within the earliest exploratory phases. And due to the inherent non-linear and iterative nature of HCD, it’s not uncommon to be working through multiple phases in parallel (returning to the “blackboard” often) as you work towards a solution. Likewise, empathy for users can evolve at any time throughout the course of the HCD framework as you continue to learn and better understand your users along the way.