Creating Compassionate Designers

Originally Posted on September 6th, 2006

As the quality of digital experience improves; the value of creating passionate users is becoming clear to brands wishing to thrive in the "experience economy".  Provide an experience that is useful, usable, desirable, and differentiated and you will create demand for your brand and delight your customers.

But if passionate users (or customers, or consumers) is the "WHAT"—the end result which we aspire to attain, then what about the "HOW" in regards to the role in which design plays in all of this?  And I'm not just talking about visual design here.  As designers of digital experiences, what are we doing to develop compassion toward the users we are designing for?

Ok, if you are going to get defensive while reading this article, now might be the right time.  If you are an Interaction Designer, you probably feel that your whole existence is dedicated to meeting the wants and needs of users.  If you are a Visual Designer, you might feel that you possess heightened sensitivities, which allow you to be more "empathetic" while designing for your audience.

Well, if you feel you are doing all you can to be a compassionate designer, then there is no need to continue reading.  But if you think you can do more—read on.  I have this theory.  My theory is that when we feel that we get really good at something.  When we begin to consider ourselves "experts", that is when we become "at risk" for losing (or de-emphasizing) our compassion for the customer—the people we design for.

Think about it this way.  It happens to Doctors.  The people who swear to uphold Hippocratic oaths.  The same people who sometimes hold the key to life or death.  When a Surgeon gets so good at his or her craft, sometimes compassion takes a back seat to the honorable goal of saving lives.  Sometimes bedside manners become compromised in the process of moving on to the next patient.  It's not intentional or out of malice—it just happens.  All professionals are vulnerable to this.  When we get really good at something, we're tempted to think, "I've done this hundreds of times—I know what I'm doing."

We are tempted to think, "This is my area of expertise".

Usability, Interface Design.  Visual Design.  Motion Design.  Copywriting.  Marketing.  All of the above.  Let's be honest with ourselves.  How many times have we made a design decision that was in the interest of winning an award rather than winning over the customer?  Or how many times have we included a deliverable because it validated our role as opposed to validating the life of a consumer?

We've all done it. Oh, you haven't?  Liar.

What exactly does it mean to be a compassionate designer?  It means doing things that help us not only understand, but relate to the users we design for.  To feel for them.  To put ourselves in their shoes, even if our own lives are totally opposite from them.  Sound simple?  It is. You just have to do it.

Here are some practical ways we can develop compassion for our users:

1. Get out of the office
Put down that design magazine and boxes+arrows article.  Go out into the real world.  Watch.  Listen.  Observe.

2. Talk to someone
Talk to the people you are designing for.  Chances are you won’t be able to relate to them at first.  When you get to this point—then you know you’re doing something right.

3. Eat, sleep, dream curiosity
Be curious.  Be very curious.  Don’t know how? Find yourself a five-year-old, and hang out with them for a while.  Then ask the same questions they do.

4. Do what they do
Are you designing for stay-at-home moms?  Take the day off and go to a park.  Hover around schools during drop off time.  Walk a mile in their shoes.  Better yet, just walk with them.

Comments

[Andy Didyk]

David,

I agree with you whole-heartedly. I think that one of the most uncomfortable things about our business is that you need to live in a constant state of humility that you're not going to get it right in order to get it right. Doing so keeps you vigilant and fresh.

It is uncomfortable to do this, but getting too comfortable, too confident even, is a major cause of agency reviews. Clients want a renewed focus (almost a fear?) that if the agency’s ideas aren’t new and if the interactions aren’t all incredible that things may be over. On top of all that, our industry is really only about 10-15 years old, and has changed radically in that short period of time. To assume that one is an expert in something that is constantly changing does seem a bit silly

Great post.

[Pete]

Hi David - same goes for marketing in general. Better marketing results as a byproduct of true customer empathy. Moreover, isn't it just more fun to work on something that you really understand and have a passion for? I began my career in the public utility industry...it was tough for me to get excited about the inner workings of a power plant, but for some lifers it was totally awesome.

[DA]

Andy, Pete

Good points. I especially relate to the idea of not assuming that you are an expert. This past weekend I was positioned as a "blogging expert"—but have to remind myself that I'm not an expert in anything. The moment we feel we are experts is the moment our creativity is at risk.

I'm really looking forward to the next couple of days, so I can learn from other "non-experts" as well. :)

[Marcelo Paiva]

Armano, I remember the time when designers had the passion of a self-taught artist. Take the indigenous peoples, they are designers by nature. Like product designers, they design artifacts to fulfill their immediate needs; like visual designers and artists they paint their bodies to express a feeling for an occasion; like architects, they build their homes, like fashion designers they craft their clothes and the same goes for their music, dances, etc...

NEED, PASSION and BELIEVE in a very simplistic form; always adapting to the landscape they are living in.

Taking us back to our world of academic+corporate designers, it's very easy to loose some of the core values of design.

NEED - becomes what a research report says, I agree with you that we need to go out on the field to talk and to observe.

COM+PASSION (with passion) - nowadays, the only passion we talk among ourselves is the love for the tools we use. The loyalty for our Macs and Photoshops... We need to show this passion during brainstorming sessions, when we facilitate the thinking of others, when you can't quite figure out what the hell the user wants and you MUST empower the person to think-through the discovery process.

BELIEVE - that you can adapt! Specially interaction designers. There's a new landscape emerging, new technologies, new operating systems, new user experiences. The product development is shifting, Adobe Apollo, Microsoft Silverlight and maybe Sun's JavaFX are set to give us, designers, the white canvas and brushes we've all wanted for a long time, to help us designing compelling user experience.

This is the time, and that's why I follow this blog. David Armano is always challenging the way we think. This post came in a good timing to help us reset our bad habits and recover the core value of design.

Cheers,
Marcelo Paiva

[Valeria Maltoni]

"The moment we feel we are experts is the moment our creativity is at risk."

That's because we get into 'assume' mode and forget to remain curious.

[Michael Leis]

Nice shiny graphic. Totally agree with you and Valeria. What we're experts in is practically applying what we learn. If we're not good at learning and sharing, it's really tough to bring any kind of long-term value.