Design Thinking: Empathy

Before one can discuss the concepts of empathy as it pertains to Design Thinking, they have to understand the fundamentals of empathy as an emotion. According to What is Empathy?, “Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.” Empathy is not only an important emotion for people to have, but it is a building block for morality. 

Having empathy can enhance many aspects of a person's life. It boosts relationships, deepens connections, and embraces equality. Many people think that empathy is something you have or not, however, there are ways to cultivate it in oneself. Different practices can be done in order to strengthen the emotion. Active listening is a technique that helps develop intrigue in what others have to say. It encourages people to focus on others instead of projecting their own opinions on the situation. It is also key to nurture empathy as an emotion. Focusing your attention outwards by observing your surroundings, getting out of your own head, and expressing body language are all ways of actively practicing empathy and can strengthen connections with others and yourself. 

According to Roman Krznarics, Six Habits of Highly Empathic People, there are ways people with a greater sense of empathy can express their emotions. By developing these exercises, one can expand their empathic potential. Establishing a curiosity about strangers can help enhance one's social circle, thus learning new perspectives from different people. Another technique is discovering commonalities. This can help bring people together and focus on similarities instead of judging and thinking about the differences. One important habit that highly empathic people (HEP) have, is the ability to live someone else’s life. It is extremely important to think about others through their experiences and live through their lenses. 

Empathy is an essential phase in the process of Design Thinking. Without it, many designers wouldn't know where to start because they don't have an understanding of their audience. Design Thinking can be implemented anywhere. According to Design Thinking for Doctors and Nurses, “A 2016 report that looked at ways in which a health system can implement Design Thinking identified three principles behind the approach: empathy for the user, in this case, a patient, doctor or other health care provider; the involvement of an interdisciplinary team; and rapid prototyping of the idea.” By introducing the process of Design Thinking to places of health care, it is extremely important to have empathy as a big step for creating innovative change. 

 At the Jefferson Health Design Lab, doctors and nurses were able to create new ideas and present them to their hospitals. It was the concept of empathy that led to the innovative idea of the CareCube. Instead of the usual 1-10 scale for pain levels, nurses and doctors came together to create a way of doing it that made it fun for kids while also helping hospital personnel track their pain. They put faces on a toy-like object to make it more inviting for kids. Without the use of empathy in this situation, designers wouldn’t know the needs of their audience to be able to make the most effective change. 

According to DesignBetter, “Worldwide, about 15 million premature babies are born every year and the most common preventable cause of infant mortality is hypothermia.” The extreme team at Stanford Design School took it upon themselves to create a way to decrease the infant mortality rate through the process of Design Thinking. They focused on the empathy aspect of the process and decided to branch out. They knew that in order to create the most efficient design they needed to see through the lenses of the hospital staff and parents of the infants. Their initial idea was to redesign the existing incubators, but after observing the numerous empty incubators they discovered the real problem. Most people lived far away from the hospital, making it more difficult to survive the trip, and causing most parents to handle the babies in their homes. The team decided to come up with easy, portable incubators. This design helped save over 3,000 babies. From this, empathy was a key aspect of the design process, and not concentrating on it would have led the designers down a less effective path. 

Overall, empathy as an emotion and as a phase in Design Thinking is very important in the process of creating new and innovative change. According to Brené Brown, “If I share something with you that’s very difficult, I’d rather you say ‘I don’t know what to say I'm just glad you told me’ because the truth is, rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection.”    

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