Empathy+Design by Ryan Williams

EMPATHY+DESIGN CONFERENCE 2016

EMPATHY+DESIGN CONFERENCE 2016 MAY 11-13 RALEIGH CONVENTION CENTER

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

Ryan Williams What is Empathy+Design?

INTERVIEW: DESIGN RESEARCH

Dr. Brenda Laurel Break-out Session

IS EMPATHY THE UX HOLY GRAIL? Nick Kellingley Break-out Session

EMPATHIC DESIGN PROCESS

Dorothy Leonard and Jeffrey Rayport Break-out Session

WHY DESIGNERS NEED EMPATHY Tom and David Kelley Keynote Speech

Foreword

What is Empathy+Design? Empathy+Design Conference is an annual gathering aiming to bring to light the importance of empathic design and research-led design endeavors. As creative minds continue to shape the world and the way that humans interact with one another, it is clear that it is becoming incredibly important to fully understand and research the users for which a design is being created. This booklet is designed to help you get to know the notable speakers who will be presenting at this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conference, as well as introduce you to some of their work in empathic design.

When and where is Empathy+Design? The conference will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the Raleigh Convention Center, from May 11th through the 13th, 2016. The center provides a wide variety of spaces for keynote speeches and break-out sessions, including a 4,100 square foot street-level mezzanine for gathering and networking with other designers between sessions. Multiple hotels are located within walking distance from the center, including the highly rated Marriott, which is directly adjacent to the convention center. Empathy+Design is proud to partner with this beautiful center for 2016.

Raleigh Convention Center is located on South Salisbury St. in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, an area with a growing interest in new topics in design and architecture.

DR. BRENDA

LAUREL

Renowned professor and author, Dr. Brenda Laurel is the founder of both Telepresence Research, Inc. and Purple Moon. She designed User Interfaces and Vivarium at Apple in the early 1990s. She is known for the design of the graduate level Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design and currently serves as a faculty member, where she has published more than six books.

Brenda Laurel Interview: Design Research

Q: Why has research in design become important? A: “Perhaps the single most pernicious sort

of folly I have seen over nearly thirty years in the computer field is the belief on the part of engineers, designers, and marketing people is that they ‘just know’ what will work for their audience. For extremely observant, experienced designer, this may indeed be true, but such people are exceedingly rare, and those who are most successful have “trained” their intuition by carefully observing and reaching deep understanding of certain kinds of people, cultures, and contexts. For the rest of us, that first “great idea” is usually a shot in the dark. Examining the idea to discover the hypotheses that are implicit in it gives the designer a platform for inquiry that will inform the project. It may also surprise and delight the designer.” “Full-blown ideas for great, innovative products do not come from research subjects. The designer need not fear that engaging in research means that one is the slave of their findings. Design research includes the careful analysis of findings, turning them this way and that, looking for patterns. At the end of the day, well-designed research findings can spark the imagination of the designer with outcomes that could not have been dreamt of by either the research subjects or even the designer herself. Good design research functions as a springboard for the designer’s creativity and values.”

Q: You’ve said that good design needs to understand “deep, roiling currents of our dynamic culture.” Is research the best method of divining those currents? A: “Well, “research” is a pretty broad term.

Exploration, investigation, looking around, finding out are all synonyms for research. In the business of cultural production, exposure to popular media is essential research. Television, movies, news, games, nonfiction, science fiction--all facets of the Spectacle--can provide a lot of information about the trajectories of change, what people long for and what they fear; what sorts of stories are told and why; how people are likely to greet particular changes in their world.” “As Henry Jenkins’ work demonstrates so well, it is also extremely useful to delve into the currents and eddies of particular “fandoms” or subcultures. One cannot possibly explore them all, but designers can identify those that are most relevant to their work. For example, my colleagues are deeply inspired by hard science fiction as well as popular science fiction and fantasy. At a deeper level, thoughtful designers engage in critical discourse regarding culture and change.”

Q: What should designers look for when doing research? A: “Well, ‘research’ is a pretty broad term.

Exploration, investigation, looking around, finding out are all synonyms for research. In the business of cultural production, exposure to popular media is essential research. Television, movies, news, games, nonfiction, science fiction--all of the Spectacle--can provide a great deal of information about the trajectories of change, what people long for and what they fear; what sorts of stories are told and why; how people are likely to greet particular changes in their world.” “As Henry Jenkins’ work demonstrates so well, it is also extremely useful to delve into the currents and eddies of particular “fandoms” or subcultures. One cannot possibly explore them all, but designers can identify those that are most relevant to their work. For example, my colleagues and I are deeply inspired by hard science fiction as well as popular science fiction and fantasy. At a deeper level, thoughtful designers engage in critical discourse regarding culture and change in that culture.” “The dictionary definition frames research as “scholarly or scientific investigation or inquiry into a subject.” The first step is to deliberately identify one’s own biases and beliefs about the subject of study and to ‘hang them at the door’ so as to avoid

A Self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to the positive feedback between belief and behavior. Designers might accidentally fall into the trap of fulfilling their own ideals in a design just because they want the result to come out their way.

self-fulfilling prophecies. One must then frame the research question and carefully identify the audiences, contexts, and research methods that are most likely to yield actionable results. Those last two words are the most important: actionable results. Often, the success of a research program hangs upon how the question is framed.” “For example, in my own experience in an effort to design computer games for girls, we first framed our research question in the obvious manner: ‘why don’t girls play computer games?’ But the answers to that question (at least at the time we were asking it, in the mid-1990s) were at the same time highly predictable (e.g., the early, rapid vertical integration of the computer game industry around a monolithic male demographic) and not particularly actionable (e.g., girls don’t play games because games aren’t design for them or offered in retail spaces where girls go). A much more fruitful line of inquiry was, ‘how does play vary by gender?’ The answers to this question gave us very broad coverage--from biology to local culture and social practice. The results were generative and generalizable to areas beyond game design. For example, insights into social play informed our web design efforts, and findings regarding gender signaling in toys informed our content, branding, and marketing.”

BREAK-OUT SESSION

Dr. Laurel will be giving us more of this valuable information about her take on design research and empathy during her break-out session.

WEDNESDAY MAY 11 2:30-4:00PM Meeting Room A

NICK

KELLINGLEY Discovering and understanding the importance of empathic design and educating students and designers on best practices is the goal of Nick Kellingley, design writer and blogger. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worked for notable design firms including interactive design at FROG and the Interaction Design Foundation of America.

Empathic Design: Is Empathy the UX Holy Grail?

The detachment between designers and users during the majority of projects is potentially damaging to user experience. The ability to empathize with users is an essential part of a UX designers make-up. Unfortunately, it would appear that detachment isn’t the only reason that much of designers’ work fails to take the intended users, their needs, and feelings, into account, as research suggests that those working in a technological field, specifically males, have low empathy. William Hudson (2009), in Reduced Empathizing Skills Increase Challenges for User-Centered Design, states,

UX Design is the term given to design that focuses on the experience that a user has while interacting with the design or product.

“User-Centered Design is surprisingly difficult. One of the biggest issues, certainly for those with no HCI or usability experience, is a lack of appreciation of how users think and work. Their assumption is that users will approach and solve problems in the same way as the designers and developers of an interactive solution.” In the context of design, empathy isn’t necessarily feeling how people feel or stepping into their shoes to adopt their lifestyle and everything that comes with it. Empathy in design is simply taking the time to carry out user research, absorbing it into your thinking to help to guide your decision-making processes. In an interview with UX Matters, Bas Raijmakers, Daniel Szuc, Geke van DIjk, and

Jo Wong state that designers can use a number of exercises to increase their empathic understanding of users and the conditions in which they operate. The aim of these exercises should be to:

1. increase open-mindedness 2. reduce bias 3. collaborate with research participants 4. accept what you see and hear Empathic design is the process of the developing of a better understanding of users, not just their overt needs, but of their constraints, practices, problem-solving approaches, contexts, and the interrelations between people as a whole. The aim of researching users in such a way is to try to help designers identify their users’ underlying needs (i.e. those that are not instantly apparent or accessible through questioning alone). Once we have established these needs we can develop new problem-solving approaches that accommodate the users’ constraints and exploit (in a nice way) their capabilities. The ultimate aim is to improve the user’s or consumer’s experience by tailoring the product to their explicit, implicit, and latent needs. A young girl practices empathic design by testing how to safely get into and drive a car while wearing a vest that simulates pregnancy.

The need for empathy and research in design is becoming an increasingly important factor. With most new technologies now used by a whole range of people, from different cultures, with a variety of physical, mental, and situational constraints, we must develop an understanding of how we can design products that appeal to, support and enable people. We cannot appreciate what it means to be each and every person that uses a product, but through the use of an empathic design approach we can come to understand how people behave, feel, and tackle the problems in their lives with the use of our products.

BREAK-OUT SESSION

Nick Kellingley will be presenting more on the design process and how to incorporate empathy into research during his break-out session.

THURSDAY MAY 12

2:30-4:00PM Meeting Room A 9

DOROTHY

LEONARD

JEFFREY F.

RAYPORT

Two acclaimed professors at Harvard University, Leonard and Rayport are known for their innovation and expansion of the business administration field. They explored empathic design and research and the implications these have in all fields.

Empathic Design Process: The 5 Steps In Spark Innovation Through Empathic Design, Dorothy Leonard and Jeffrey F. Rayport outlined the empathic design process as follows:

Observation and Understanding Within this step we must decide who should be observed, who should complete the observing, and what behaviors should be observed.

Capturing and Keeping Data Observers typically use audio and video recording equipment during the observation process to capture data, which can be assessed at a later date to identify any previously unidentified actions, behaviors, methods, approaches, problems, and alternative solutions. During this phase, observers will still try to interpret users’ and consumers’ actions using questions, such as “Why did you do that?”, and “What problem did the user just come up against?”. These questions would be broad and directed at gaining insights into how the user interacts with a product and how the product then influences the user in turn. The observers will take notes and keep reports of what happened and when, the problems users encountered, and a host of other pieces of information and insights that stand out.

Reflection and Analysis Data collected from step two will be brought together from all observers and analyzed. New insights should be gained during this phase, as the team members discuss the things they had observed and recorded. It is at this point that the team will attempt to identify and understand all their users’/consumers’/customers’ problems and needs.

Brainstorming for Solutions

Brainstorming can be completed in many different ways, from concept mapping to sketches to group discussions of topics, and can be considered one of the most crucial parts of the design process.

Brainstorming is an exercise in developing strategies and problem solutions to implement in a design. It is typically an open forum discussion lead by one particular member of the team who will write up and record the thoughts and ideas of others, whilst trying to keep the process flowing. Brainstorming may be a free and open experience, but the conditions must support the process, which takes some preparation. The brainstorming room must have sufficient space for people to feel comfortable, but the atmosphere shouldn’t be sterile and members shouldn’t have to shout to be heard. As mentioned, you should designate someone to take down contributors’ ideas and draw/write them onto the whiteboard/wall/poster. They should also stimulate the idea generation process; for example, by establishing the motivating phrases or ‘How might we...?’ questions central to the brainstorming chart. If the process begins to slow down and people seem to be running into a dead-end, impose constraints, such as “what if there was no top-level navigation bar?” or “How might you go about the task if you were 8 years old?”. Alternatively, you might want to set up targets, such as filling the brainstorming sheet within ten minutes.

Developing Prototypes The prototyping process involves bringing ideas from the brainstorming sessions to life. Problem solutions are put to the test. According to Leonard and Rayport, there are three distinctive reasons for conducting prototype testing in an empathic design approach: clarification of the core concept of the product for the development team, enabling the team to share the current design with those who do not work in the functions covered by that particular team, and the potential for further improvements once tested with real consumers and following discussions with the target users.

BREAK-OUT SESSION Nick Kellingley will be presenting more on the design process and how to incorporate empathy into research during his break-out session.

THURSDAY MAY 12

4:30-6:00PM Meeting Room B

TOM AND DAVID

KELLEY

The founders of award winning Palo Alto-based global design firm IDEO have been helping private and public sector organizations innovate, grow and bring to market new ideas for 35 years; projects include Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first computer mouse and a stand-up toothpaste dispenser for Procter & Gamble. In the follow excerpt, the brothers share an excerpt from the book that examines why businesses should use empathy when designing for customers.

Why Designers Need Empathy In organizations with millions of customers, or in industries serving the broad public, there is a temptation to stereotype or depersonalize customers. They become numbers, transactions, data points on a bell curve, or parts of a composite character built on market segmentation data. That type of shortcut might seem useful for understanding the data, but we’ve found that it doesn’t work well when designing for real people. The notion of empathy and human-centeredness is still not widely practiced in many corporations. Business people rarely navigate their own websites or watch how people use their products in a real-world setting. And if you do a word association with “business person,” the word “empathy” doesn’t come up much. What do we mean by empathy in terms of creativity and innovation?

In the context of design, empathy isn't necessarily feeling how people feel or stepping into their shoes to adopt their lifestyle and everything that comes with it. Empathy in design is simply taking the time to carry out user research, absorbing it into your thinking to guide your decision-making processes.

For us, it’s the ability to see an experience through another person’s eyes, to recognize why people do what they do. It’s when you go into the field and watch people interact with products and services in real time—what we sometimes refer to as “design research.” Gaining empathy can take some time and resourcefulness. But there is nothing like observing the person you’re creating something for to spark new insights. And when you specifically set out to empathize with your end user, you get your own ego out of the way. We’ve found that figuring out what other people actually need is what leads to the most significant innovations. In other words, empathy is a gateway to better and

The d.school, or the Hasso Plattner School of Design at Stanford, was founded by David Kelley and George Kembel in 2004. Their faculty boasts a substantial 85 members. Notable user experience-related products of the school include the Embrace blanket neonatal incubator, the d.light, and the Pulse News Reader app, which peaked at #1 on the Apple App Store in 2010.

sometimes surprising insights that can help distinguish your idea or approach. You can use this kind of anthropological research in the field to gather inspiration at the beginning of a project, to validate concepts and prototypes generated throughout the design process, and to rekindle momentum when ideas or energy are running low. At IDEO and the d.school, we like to observe people in their homes or where they work or play. We watch them interact with products and services. Sometimes we interview them to better understand their thoughts and feelings. This kind of hands-on research can even change your understanding of who the end user is, as it did for the Embrace team when they changed their approach from designing infant baby warmers for hospitals and clinics to designing for rural mothers in their villages. At IDEO, we hire design researchers with social science backgrounds and advanced degrees in fields like cognitive psychology, anthropology, or linguistics, people who are sophisticated at gathering and synthesizing insights from interviews and observations.

But you don’t need an advanced degree to get out into the field. Usually every team member on a project at IDEO or the d.school takes part in such fieldwork, because the final concept benefits as a result. Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken says, “Anthropology is too important to be left to the anthropologists.” Everyone can improve their empathy skills with a little practice. You may find you’ll get some of your best ideas by doing so. Many organizations or teams use benchmarking when they want to innovate. They check out what their competitors are doing and pick what they consider “best practices.” In other words, without questioning current ways of doing things or seeking new insights, they copy and paste. In 2007, when PNC Financial Services was striving to appeal to younger customers, it could have just followed the competition, hiked up interest rates on its checking accounts by half a percent and promoted them with a marketing campaign. Instead, it created a new kind of account for young people, attracting fourteen thousand new customers in the first two months. PNC’s story starts not with benchmarking but with seeking to understand the customers it wanted to attract and then committing to

improving its relationship with them. PNC was looking to reach what was considered a new demographic, “Generation Y,” also known as GenYers. When the team at PNC started getting to know GenY through interviews, it became clear that while tech savvy and adept at weaving technology seamlessly into their lives, they are far from literate when it comes to banking and managing their finances. Even people who were making more than enough to live comfortably were often overdrawn on their account because they would pay bills before their paycheck went through. The team realized that GenYers would benefit from tools to better manage their money. With greater control over their assets, customers could save more and not overspend, avoiding overdraft charges. As Mark Jones, the service designer on the project, describes it, “For the person living hand to mouth, struggling with money management, the key is to let things be more visible, let them get access, let them tweak back and forth between accounts very easily.” Bank customers love the idea of avoiding overdraft fees. But it takes courage for a bank to create such products because over-draft fees are a highly profitable part of the industry. At the time, banks were making over $30 billion a year in overdraft income, and young adults are especially prone to incurring those fees. But PNC decided to build better long-term customer relationships by supporting healthier financial behavior. The PNC Virtual Wallet is a family of banking products that provides customers with digital access to their finances and enables them to have control of their money. Instead of a ledger, a calendar view helps customers visualize their balance, with estimated future cash flow based on when they get paid and pay bills. The view highlights Danger Days, when customers might overdraw their account, so they can reschedule bill payments, promoting better planning. A money slide bar graphically indicates and controls fund allocation between Spend, Reserve, and Growth. With the Savings Engine, customers can set their own rules, such as automatically transferring money to savings when they receive a paycheck. The new direction has paid off with greater deposit growth, making up for whatever revenue might have been lost from bounced check and overdraft fees. One customer described his experience, saying, “I’m just out of college and have a lot more things going in and out than I can keep track of. With Virtual Wallet, I was able to save some, pay all my bills, and know exactly where all my cash went. I have never felt more in control of my money in my life.”

Members of Generation Y are often referred to as “echo boomers” because they are the children of parents born during the baby boom (the “baby boomers”). Because children born during this time period have had constant access to technology in their youth, they have required many employers to update their hiring strategy in order to incorporate updated forms of technology.

Authors David (left) and Tom Kelley Photographed at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich at a private informational reception.

Virtual Wallet was a departure from “business as usual” for PNC. But the confidence to go in this direction came from its customers. By getting to know GenY and understanding their needs, PNC gained faith in the long-term success of the product. When we bring corporate executives to observe, meet with, and even talk to customers, the experience makes a lasting impression. “Rather than developing and then doing testing, we now begin projects with customers, to incorporate their thinking earlier and more effectively,” says Frederick Leichter, the chief customer experience officer at Fidelity Investments.

Does empathy research conflict with the trend toward “big data”? It’s true that there has historically been a split between quantitative market research and qualitative researchers or ethnographers. But is it necessary to disconnect the human stories from the data? Design researchers have recently begun bridging the gulf with what we call “hybrid insights.” It’s an approach that integrates quantitative research into human-centered design. Hybrid insights allow us to embed stories in the data, bringing the data to life. It brings the “why” and the “what” together. Hybrid insights can include designing a survey in a human-centered way (for example, by being more thoughtful about how we ask questions and keep people engaged). Or it can mean more rigorous concept evaluation where we do testing on prototypes with a large number of users to see if a certain direction merits more exploration.

How will empathy continue to affect design and big data in the future?

KEYNOTE SPEECH The Kelleys will be finishing up an excellent run of break-out sessions and studio workshops with a keynote presentation of their work in the empathic design field and their take on the the topic.

FRIDAY MAY 13 12:30-4:00PM Main Ballroom

Publication Info

Production Information

Text information

Editing and design by Ryan Williams

Brenda Laurel Interview: Design Research Excerpt from Design For Interaction by Dan Saffer

Proofread by Hunter Williams Printed for Professor Kermit Bailey GD Typography 317 Set in Univers Condensed Baskerville Regular

Empathic Design: Is Empathy the UX Holy Grail? Excerpted from an article from Interaction Design Foundation Empathic Design Process: The 5 Steps Excerpt from Spark Innovation through Empathic Design Why Designers Need Empathy Excerpt from Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelley