Designing for Empathy

Design & Content Conference 2016Ron Bronson

Do you ever read a magazine article and know the article was written with the assumption that you would not be

reading it?

“A business suffers from marketing myopia when a company views marketing strictly from the standpoint of selling a specific product rather than from the standpoint of fulfilling customer needs.”

- Ted Levitt (1960)

By failing to consider the people outside of our own realities who become active users, we ignore the potential audiences that could have a transformative effect on our products.

Designing for worst case scenarios

“Stress cases aren’t only about crisis — they apply when something mundane goes wrong, too.”Eric Meyer + Sara Wachter-Boettcher Design for Real Life

What’s the process for have your power turned back on if it’s been shut off?

You deposit a check. Your account is flagged. You find out when you attempt to withdraw

cash. What’s the process for having the account removed from suspension?

We think we know our audiences.

Canvass any set of workers at your local division of motor vehicles, welfare office or bank. CX people working there will be able to give you a snapshot of their customers from the perspectives they’ve gathered from their time on the front lines.

We create biases toward our imagined outcomes. This makes us more likely to forget about, or at least minimize, the possibility of other outcomes.

Sometimes it’s explicit. “We’re designing for the 85% not the 15%” But who are the 85%

Perspective influences the goal line

● Emphasis on team composition. ● Ask better questions, earlier.● Consider different frameworks for user

testing.● Onboarding matters.

Takeaways

Bonus round!

Questions?@ronbronson on your Twitter machineron@ronbronson.com