Wanted: Empathic Design
Someone Please Re-Design the Medical Walker
Would you like to be seen using this walker? No? Well, neither does anyone else including the people who need to use it, which is a problem for both those who need help and the ones trying to provide it.(Brewer 2018). An Empathic Design can potentially be life-changing for many people who use these products. For example: Ellen, a 37-year-old, athletic woman suddenly, one morning, found herself incapable of standing or walking for more than a few seconds (due to a rare medical disorder causing periodic muscle weakness). She then faced what would be months of physical therapy and was issued a basic medical walker. Functional. Gray. Embarrassing. The first words she heard from family, “Wow, you look like you’re an 80-year-old Grandma!” As soon as she was able, she stuffed her walker into the back of a storage unit. She refused to use it preferring instead to scoot about the house using her arms on the days her legs would not work. The walker was functional, but what if Ellen’s walker had been designed empathically? What if the comments were not about her perceived age or illness, but about how cool the device looked and behaved? Would she then feel less embarrassed and use a device meant to provide safe mobility? One could argue that the walker’s design is a failure because the user refuses to use it.
Empathic Design
What is empathic design? To put it in very simplistic terms, Empathic Design is the ultimate form of Human Centered Design. Empathetic information helps the design process because it addresses the needs of the client or end-user before the product is built. “In Design Thinking, empathy is,” as explained in IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit, a “deep understanding of the problems and realities of the people you are designing for.” It involves learning about the difficulties people face, as well as uncovering their latent needs and desires in order to explain their behaviors. To do so, we need to have an understanding of the people’s environment, as well as their roles in and interactions with their environment” (Dam, 2020). It helps a design process information, put it into a proper context, which then either helps decide the best medium, or influences how to use the Empathic information with the chosen medium for the best possible outcome.
Empathy vs. Sympathy
Empathy vs. Sympathy: these two terms are often used interchangeably, but their meanings are slightly different. Sympathy is projecting your feelings about something or someone and often leads to pity and sorrow (Dam 2020), whereas empathy is understanding of a difficulty and working together towards a solution. It is easy to sympathize with a child, young adult, or elderly person having to use functional, but rather ugly medical equipment for the first time. It is another thing to walk a mile in their shoes and learn to empathize and work toward a joint solution.
Marketplace
In the marketplace does Empathic Design replace market research and become the only tool necessary for good design? No. Rather, it contributes “to the flow of ideas that need further testing” (Leonard 1997). A typical Empathic Design process flow looks something like this: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test (Standford).
By using this design process companies will be able to make products that fit their customers actual needs, which leads to stronger sales and financial stability. Examples of products in the market today which were driven by Empathic Design include noise cancelling headphones, 3-D printed arm, mini diet-coke cans, and Oxo Good Grips. Examples of products that were “Functional Design” first include the medical walker, crutches, and two-way doors that have “pull handles” on both sides.
Empathic Designers
Designers such as Clara Gaggero use Empathic Design to help companies fix their most frustrating design issues. They put the user first, work to understand the intricate issues of the end-user, process this information in context and work to redesign products in their existing or new mediums for workable solution. A great example is how her company, Special Projects, redesigned a Samsung phone for seniors that they can use and want to use. During the process of empathizing with the user, “Special Designs” realized that their perception of the older population was not accurate.
Using this information, they adjusted their perspective and ultimately the design of the Samsung phone and manual. They created a manual that consists of two hard-cover books. The first has a cut out where the phone rests. As the user opens the book and turns each page, the book takes them step-by-step through the phone set-up process. The second book has easy to navigate tabs, simple to read text, and easy to follow instructions showing the features of the phone and how to use them. The design was so effective that it is now on display at MOMA (see a video of the design below).
Conclusion
Looking back at Ellen. What would happen if a company used Empathic Design to build a beautiful and functional walker? What impact would an empathetically designed walker have on our elderly population that is reluctant to use walkers as currently designed? By focusing the design on the user first, manufacturers can build products that are functional, efficient and attractive. Empathetic design is life-altering for the end-user who will utilize rather than ignore the device intended to help them.
References
Dam, R.F. and Siang, T.Y. “Design Thinking: Getting Started with Empathy”. Interaction Design Foundation (2020). Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/design-thinking-getting-started-with-empathy
Leonard, D, and J F Rayport. “Spark Innovation through Empathic Design.” Harvard business review 75.6 (1997): 102–113. Print.
Brewer, D. “Why Some Seniors Refuse to Use Walking Aids”. Uplifting Mobility (2018). Available at: https://www.upliftingmobility.com/seniors-refuse-walking-aids/
