Exercise Overview

We will begin our exploration of empathy design and persona discovery with a visual thinking exercise that will allow you to practice the process of empathy in design by following a 4-phase empathy framework. This is an ungraded individual exercise that will help you to practice empathy design through persona discovery.

Exercise Instructions

Please take a moment and closely examine the photo above. Reflect on the prompts below as they relate to the empathy framework.

1. Discover: Raise your curiosity. Enter the world of these people. Explore and discover the people, their situation, and experiences. Take 1-2 minutes to do this.

2. Immerse: Wander around in their world. Expand your knowledge about the people. Give them names. It is okay to be surprised by various aspects that influence their experience and circumstances. What may be their hopes, fears, and dreams? Be open-minded. Don’t judge. Get interested in their point of reference. Take 2 minutes to do this.

3. Connect: Resonate with these people. Recall upon your own memories and experiences in order to reflect and be able to create an understanding. Make a connection on an emotional level with the people by recalling your own feelings and resonating with their experience. Take 2 minutes to do this.

4. Detach: Step back and make sense of their world. Reflect on new insights for ideas to help them. What may they want to accomplish? Take 1-2 minutes to do this.

Image Credit: Nicholas, G. (2015). Times Square Expressions. CC BY 2.0