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This video will cover the next important skill needed to become a great UX Designer. Empathy.
Quick Reference
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Not only are UXer's utilizing system's
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thinking when curating a user's experience, but
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they are, during the creation of the
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system, thinking from a user's perspective first.
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Doing this type of thinking is
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a bit different from practicing user-centered design.
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Allow me to explain this by introducing to you the
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next important skill needed to become a great UX designer Empathy.
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Webster's dictionary defines empathy as the feeling that you understand and share
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another person's experiences and emotions, or
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the ability to share someone else's feelings.
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Empathy is a skill that all great UXers hold dear.
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We do user research and observe people in our everyday lives in
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order to be able to curate our talent of sharing someone else's feelings.
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Because of this, we are able to really
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be in the user's shoes while evaluating the experience.
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Having empathy is important for UX designer because we are
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responsible for looking out for the user's needs, goals and tasks.
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We are, in essence, the user advocate.
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This means that when you are sitting in a meeting talking about requirements or
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features, it's your job to think, how
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does this requirement or feature benefit the user?
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Does it benefit or harm the user?
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How does this feature or requirement help the user
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reach their goals, fulfill their needs and complete their tasks?
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And you can answer these question by using your
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skill of empathy to put yourself in the user's shoes.
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Also you are not only responsible for being
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the user advocate during requirements and features discussions, but
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you are responsible for ensuring that the user
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is considered at each stage of the product development.
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When a visual designer comes to you with a
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new treatment, you, as the UXer, should think user first.
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How does this benefit the user?
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Does it benefit the user?
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And so on.
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When a developer comes to you with a question.
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When the Q A person comes to you with a bug and
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a proposed change, all of these times you are thinking user first,
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and you can think user first because you've curated your skill of
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empathy and thus, know what it's like to be in your user's shoes.
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Thinking user first is a key to UCD
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practices because we can't always physically involve the user.
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However, having the UXer as the user advocate available at times
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when the real users can't be available, is the next best thing.
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