Summary
Empathy is widely held as an important research mindset among designers. Many design research processes begin with the word. While empathy is broadly necessary to design practice, it is not without its problems. Most designers and researchers do not also know the dangers of empathy. Consider that: We confuse and conflate empathy, sympathy, and compassion. The differences are critically important. Empathic resonance in the brain is extremely biased. We find it hard to empathize with people unlike ourselves. Having too much empathy may also be problematic and can be weaponized by bad actors. We feel empathy only for humans and animals‚ not for objects, spaces, places, or our planet. This talk will explore the edges of empathy and show how and why two additional emotive capacities should be cultivated: curiosity and care. A short case study for a project involving four NASA space scientists will demonstrate that when these two capacities are added to empathy, they can lead to more generative research and richer insights.
Key Insights
-
•
Empathy comprises multiple types: cognitive, emotional, empathic concern, and motor empathy.
-
•
Empathy is asymptotic—we never fully understand others' feelings but interpret them through our own lens.
-
•
Overreliance on empathy can create an illusion of understanding, reducing the motivation to ask deeper questions.
-
•
Empathy often favors those most similar to us, causing bias and narrow perspectives often blind to dissimilar or marginalized groups.
-
•
The 'double empathy problem' explains misunderstandings between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals due to different empathy expressions.
-
•
Standard design tools like personas can reinforce stereotypes if not critically reimagined, especially when representing stigmatized groups.
-
•
Removing demographic details from personas, as done by the UK Ministry of Justice, can avoid stereotyping and acknowledge complexity.
-
•
Community-driven 'undeliverables' invite co-design, emphasizing dialogue and shared expertise over one-sided insight extraction.
-
•
Care and curiosity are critical emotive capacities that complement empathy in user research and design for richer, more inclusive understanding.
-
•
User research should be viewed as a compass guiding ongoing discovery instead of a fixed map promising complete understanding.
Notable Quotes
"Empathy isn’t dangerous. It helps us take the perspective of others and build rapport."
"There's less empathy in user research today than there should be."
"Empathy is asymptotic – we approach understanding but never fully intersect with others' feelings."
"Empathy is pointed on both ends—feeling others' emotions affects us in return."
"We naturally spotlight empathy on specific individuals because engaging continuously is exhausting."
"The double empathy problem happens when neurotypicals and neurodivergents don't see each other's empathy as empathy."
"Badly designed personas create stereotypes, not archetypes."
"Designing and researching for a community is an exchange, a dialogue—not just extracting insights."
"Approach any situation with the mindset of I don’t understand, to lead to fuller exploration."
"Research is like a compass—it provides direction, not a detailed map with all the turns and dangers ahead."
Dig deeper—ask the Rosenbot:
More Videos
"UX online benchmarking offers a fast and efficient way to identify strengths and weaknesses compared to competitors."
Daniela Magaña Flores Ariane Rahn Jeff Ephraim BanderAhead of Competition: Learn What UX Benchmarking Can Do for Your Business Today
March 10, 2022
"Prompting at its core involves very specifically using the inputs you give the technology so you can elicit desired outputs."
Savina HawkinsHarnessing AI in UXR: Practical Strategies for Positive Impact
March 26, 2024
"The consequences of inaction are not hypothetical; they are happening right now."
Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine MarinDesigning a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access
October 23, 2020
"Every claim, observation, and recommendation inside Hits has its own URL to enable precise sharing and tracking."
Matt DuignanHITS, Microsoft's internal human insight system: From research library to living body of knowledge (Videoconference)
July 16, 2019
"Make it easy to do the right thing, and as a side effect, make it harder to do the wrong thing - guiding principle from Salesforce Lightning Design System."
Craig VillamorDesign Systems for Ethical Design (Videoconference)
January 26, 2023
"If you don't think that you can go to battle day in and day out, UX might not be for you because that's what it is."
Ovetta SampsonTurning UX Passion into Real Product Influence
June 7, 2023
"If you’re learning something at the end of Sprint six, it’s really costly to go back and make changes in Sprint one or two."
Rima Campbell Amrit S BhachuIncrease Productivity and Drive Business Impact
September 24, 2024
"Design ops teams are mostly a team of one, so many of you are probably in the same boat I was."
Amy Gawronski ZuccaroAdvice for DesignOps Employee #1
September 29, 2021
"Songs are our way of knowing; you can tell someone's emotional state by the song they sing."
Victor UdoewaBeyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
