Slides from Morten Rand-Hendriksen's WordCamp Europe 2016 talk by the same title. Companion article at https://mor10.com/empathy
The prevailing narrative in the web community hails empathy as a cure for much of what ails our modern digital spaces. Empathy seems a worthy tool for making our designs and interactive experiences more human, but used indiscriminately it may do more harm than good. To design experiences that fit the real lives of the people who use them, we need to take a critical look at our methods and make empathy the first step in a larger process.
10. WordPress is easy!
I don’t understand.
But I think WordPress is easy!
I’m reading the instructions, but I can’t get it to work.
When I learned WordPress, is was easy!
OMG! I feel so stupid!
Me:
User:
Me:
User:
Me:
User:
22. Sympathy Empathy Compassion
Feelings of pity and
sorrow for someone
else’s misfortune.
The ability to
understand and share
the feelings of
another.
A feeling of wanting
to help someone who
is sick, hungry, in
trouble, etc.
“Oh man! That robot
is being bullied! That
sucks!”
“If I tried to pick up a
box, and someone
kept knocking it out
of my hands, I would
feel terrible.”
“If I was there, I’d
help the robot get his
box. And probably
take away that
hockey stick.”
37. deaf
Lacking the power of hearing or having impaired hearing.
Profound deafness means the person cannot hear
anything at all; they are unable to detect sound,
even at the highest volume possible.
39. Frank and Earnest, 1982
Ginger Rogers did everything he did,
backwards, and in high heels.
40. empathy
The feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and
emotions : the ability to share someone else's feelings.
The imaginative projection of a subjective state
into an object so that the object appears to be
infused with it.
41. Empathy is our interpretation of the world
through the distorting lens of
privilege and hidden bias.
60. Explore the current contexts of your partner
and yourself, and make sure they overlap. If
not, reframe the situation in a context you are
familiar with.
reframe
62. Missing arm ≈ Sprained wrist
Dyslexia ≈ Movie with subtitles
New WordPress user ≈ Filing taxes
Hamburger icon ≈ Learning road signs
63. • Explore existing contexts
• Establish shared or analog context
• Imagine or recall similar experiences
• Reframe the situation in a familiar context
• Picture yourself not just standing in their shoes,
but having walked a lifetime in them
Reframe through Association
70. • Spend a week without a mouse or touchpad
• Unplug your monitor, use text-to-speech for a day
• Use an old smartphone, Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Read #YesAllWomen, #MaybeHeDoesntHitYou,
#BlackLivesMatter
• Get some friends together and read hateful internet
comments to each other
Relive through Immersion
71. Remind yourself of your privilege and bias by
documenting your experiences learning a new
skill or taking part in unfamiliar tasks,
situations, or communities.
remind
72. Sheryl Sandberg on
Mother’s Day 2016
https://goo.gl/iQULYx
“I will never experience
and understand all of
the challenges most
single moms face, but I
understand a lot more
than I did a year ago.”
73.
74. • Learn an unfamiliar language like Python or
ASP.NET
• Begin quilting, knitting, painting, or calligraphy
• Take ballroom dancing classes
• Try your hand at teaching
• Document your successes and failures
Remind yourself of your Privilege
76. accept
To accommodate or reconcile oneself to; to regard as true; believe.
: seek out and listen to the disclosure of
other people, and treat them as true
descriptions of the world.
78. Michael Hoffman
https://goo.gl/ZGyIQd
Using “she” and “her” to refer to software
engineers doesn’t come naturally to me,
which is exactly why I try to do it
whenever I can. It’s my hope that doing
so will, however slightly, increase the
chances that someday, when my three-
year-old daughter pictures a
programmer, she sees someone who looks
like her.
79. • Listen to other people without interruption
• Accept their disclosure as the truth
• Question your immediate response
• Seek common ground
• Expand your horizon of understanding
Accept the reality of Others