Design Thinking
Key question
What do people really experience?
People don't always say what they do, and don't always do what they say. Observation reveals actual everyday behaviour, complete with all the workarounds and shortcuts.
Learning objective: You can observe people in their context, record observations objectively, and evaluate them in an empathy map.
Observing reveals what asking misses.
3.1 / Observe rather than ask
Actions speak louder than words.
Three forms of observation are particularly suitable:
01
Contextual interview
Ask questions directly on-site while the person is completing the task.
02
Work shadowing
Accompanying someone for a period of time without intervening.
03
Self-experiment
Complete the task yourself and make a note of your own hurdles.
Look out for workarounds and makeshift solutions, like sticky notes on a screen. They show where an offering misses the mark.
Self-built solutions reflect genuine needs.
3.2 / Rate as neutral
Describe first, then interpret.
Observations should be recorded as neutrally as possible: ‘She taps the same button three times’ instead of ‘She is annoyed’. The interpretation follows later and is marked as such.
Three columns are helpful: What did I see? What do I suspect? What question arises from this? This keeps assumptions testable.
Seeing is not understanding.
3.3 / Empathy Map
What a person says, thinks, does and feels.
The Empathy Map arranges insights about a person into four quadrants: what they say, think, do and feel. Contradictions between the quadrants are especially valuable, for instance when someone says everything is easy, but starts over three times.
In addition, pain points and aspirations can help: what frustrates the person, and what do they want to achieve?
Contradictions are the best clues.
3.4 / Customer Journey
The whole journey, not just a moment.
A customer journey map shows all the steps a person goes through with an offering. For each step, the action, touchpoint and feeling are noted:
BEFORE
Trigger
Why does the person start in the first place?
DURING
Usage
Which steps, which hurdles?
AFTER
Result
What happens next, what remains?
The lowest points of the emotional journey show where design can have the greatest impact. The journey is explored in greater depth in the Service Design course (Module 02).
The low points show where design has an impact.
Exercise
Observe for 20 minutes
Task: Accompany someone with an everyday task, for example buying a ticket, cooking from a recipe or registering for something.
STEP 1
Ask for permission and explain that you are assessing the task, not the person.
STEP 2
Observe for 20 minutes and neutrally note down what happens.
STEP 3
Afterwards, ask three open questions about the moments you noticed.
STEP 4
Fill in the Empathy Map and highlight any contradictions.
Evaluation: Where did the person act differently from how they described?