Week 5 - Empathy

Topic: Mindfulness

Target audience: Everyone? Can I focus on people who self-identify as overwhelmed with life and managing the several areas it involves?

Mothers

How to gather data? Informal survey through messaging. Poll people I know about their perspective of mindfulness.

Question: How do you define/understand "mindfulness"?


Design Methods

  • Persona 
    • Because we naturally relate to other people
    • People typically share similar interests and lifestyles that influence their attraction to a product
    • Without a persona, designers/design team make assumptions or design for themselves - Problematic! 
    • Gives a target to focus on
  • User journey mapping
    • Visualize the steps a user will take to accomplish a goal
    • 1st: Whose journey is it? Using the data collected about users' characteristics, what do I want them to accomplish?
    • 2nd: Plot the stages of the experience using a timeline
    • Identify the 6 aspects: Stages, Activities, Thoughts and Emotions, Touchpoints, Pains, Gains... as well as the levels of progression
    • Ex 

    • Key elements: Actor (persona/POV) | Scenario/Expectations (scenario can be actual or anticipated) | Journey Phases | Actions/Mindsets/Emotions | Opportunities
    • NN Group Journey Phases ex: For an ecommerce scenario (like buying Bluetooth speakers), the stages can be discover, try, buy, use, seek support.
    • Actions/Mindsets/Emotions: Actions = actual behaviors and steps. Mindset = thoughts, questions, and information needed during each stage. Emotions = ups and downs of experience (delights versus frustrations)
    • Opportunities give designers feedback. What needs to be done? What needs to change? How?

    • Scenarios
      • Storytelling (my favorite?)
      • Use the persona developed. Imagine the user interacts with my module. 
      • Who are they? What do they care about? Why might they need to use your module?
      • List features that the module will demonstrate.
      • Structure the story. Narrate the story. Then, what 3 qualities from my design concept emerge from the story?
    • Empathy mapping
      • Used in UX to depict who an end user is and their experience
      • Benefit: 1) create shared understanding, 2) make decisions
      • 4 quadrants: Says / Thinks / Does / Feels
      • First step: Identify the persona that will be mapped
      • Step 1: Define scope and goals (who is the user, what task do they accomplish)
      • Step 2: Gather materials to make the map (poster/post-its, etc.)
      • Step 3: Collect research (interview/ observation/ contextual info)
      • Step 4: Analyze the findings and generate Says/Thinks/Does/Feels 
      • Step 5: Converge and cluster for similar ideas and name the themes
      • Result: Shared visualization
      • Quickest and easiest method?


    Empathy Map




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