Sarah Gibbons, Nielsen Norman Group's Chief Designer describes the spectrum of empathy, ranging from pity to compassion, and offers advice on how to practice empathy in UX here. Do you see what I see? – Participants in the Census supported the Purves Cube finding that two identical brown squares on a Rubik’s cube appear to be different shades of brown, however they also revealed that we all experience this illusion differently. It’s certainly possible to change someone’s narrative, but it takes time and patience and leverage. Teaching a new narrative is hard work, essential work, but something that is difficult to do at scale.” ~ Seth Godin

Empathize” is actually the first stage of the design thinking process — what could be more important than that?! It makes sense really when you think about it. Your goal, as a designer, is to gain an empathic understanding of the people you design for, after all! You should have a burning desire to observe, engage and empathize with the people you design for to understand their experiences and motivations. What’s more, you’ll need to immerse yourself in their physical environment if you want to have any chance at gaining a deeper personal understanding of the issues, needs and challenges involved in their day-to-day lives. Humans appear to intuitively form an image in their minds of how an object looks from another person’s perspective, according to University of Plymouth researchers. And it’s quite rare to have someone say, “I’m a selfish narcissist, and everyone should revolve around me merely because I said so.” We cannot stress enough how important it is for you as a designer to develop the best possible understanding of your users, their needs and the problems that your product or service is trying to solve! You and your team can gain huge insight via the practical Empathize methods below, and, if time and money allows for it, it may also be worth getting some experts on board to help you fully understand the people you want to design for. What’s good to note is this empathic phase of design thinking is named differently depending on which version of the methodology you follow. Different schools and companies which use design thinking have called empathic research "the Empathize stage" (as we do), "the understand phase," "the hear phase," and simply "looking," as well as a number of other terms. Regardless of which phrase you’re familiar with, the core is essentially the same — empathy is deeply human-centric and is essential at the start of any design process. Empathy is Crucial to Business SuccessSee the World Through Others’ Eyes is a really interesting science set. It includes a set of glasses with interchangeable lenses which allow you to see the world in 20 different ways. These include; cat; dog; rat; horse; cow; elephant; fish; shark; cuttlefish; bird; eagle; T-rex; unicorn; astronaut; colour blindness; new born baby; near vision; fly; bee and dragonfly. The box also contains detailed instructions and explanations about how the lenses work and how various animals, including humans see. The Perception Census researchers are hoping that many more people from across the world will take part. As well as Professors Anil Seth and Fiona Macpherson, the research team includes Dr Reny Baykova, Dr David Schwartzman, Dr James Alvarez, and Trevor Hewitt – all at the University of Sussex. AD/Gifted. In our house, science toys and sets are always popular. This week we’ve been putting the See the World Through Others’ Eyes set from Brainstorm Toys to the test.

Now you have a good understanding of what empathy is (and isn’t), let’s move on to why it’s so important in the design thinking process. In 1869, if you tried to convince Joe that women had the right to vote, you would have failed. Your filter would have been incongruent with his worldview. You could yell and bash out at the Joe because he fails to see the world as you do. But, that would not change anything.When I am confronted with an opposing worldview, my initial reaction is to convince them that they are wrong. The automatic responses of the lizard brain takes over the moment it senses a threat. Dreamachine is one of 10 major creative projects commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. The UK’s most ambitious showcase of creative collaboration - across science, technology, engineering, arts and maths - includes free large-scale events, installations and globally accessible digital experiences, and an extensive learning programme reaching millions of schoolchildren. Rebuttal or criticism: Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism. The RSA short animation above is an excerpt from this TEDx Talk by Dr. Brené Brown on the power of vulnerability.