Every decision we make affects the way real people experience our products. We've all heard the rallying cry for user-centered design, but even those of us who ascribe to that ideal often fall back on our own biases and instincts when it comes to making decisions about how people experience our content and our services. Sadly, this often means we make decisions we think will be good for our “users” - that anonymous, faceless crowd - rather than actually trying to understand the perspectives, surroundings, capabilities, and disadvantages of the actual people who we are here to serve. In this session, Aaron will explore why empathy is a good thing, how empathy empowers creativity, and how we, as a community, can inject more empathy into our work.
Text of Designing with Empathy [Code & Creativity 2014]
Design Art _ Photo Credit: faith gobleImage Credit: L.e.e
Art serves the Artist Photo Credit: Abby Lanes
Ive been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decorationlikely because so much bad design simply is decoration. Good design isnt. Good design is problem solving. Jeffrey Veen
design /dzn/ To devise for a specific function or end Classical: To indicate Medieval Latin: designare, to mark out
David Carson has been called the most influential graphic designer of our times Photo Credit: Marc Eckardt for FontShop, Berlin.
It was Art
It was Ego
subjective, personal, and self-indulgent Photo Credit: Marc Eckardt for FontShop, Berlin.
Just because you can doesnt mean you should Photo Credit: harald walker
Design isnt about showing off Photo Credit: Laurence & Annie
empathy /em-p-th/ From the Greek empathia meaning state of emotion
empathy /em-p-th/ The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner
Perspective is everything Photo Credit: ZeroOne
empathy /em-p-th/ The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner
empathy /em-p-th/ The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner Also: the capacity for this
Photo Credit: andrechinn Dont create unnecessary barriers
Credit: XKCD Dont force your agenda on your customers
Support common assistive technology Credit: windsordi
What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary. Judaism Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Christianity No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Islam The Golden Rule Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find harmful. Buddhism
Progressive Enhancement
[Progressive enhancement] keeps the design open to the possibilities of sexiness in opportune contexts, rather than starting with the whole experience that must be compromised. Ben Hoh
Egalitarianism Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome
Designing Empathywith
Designing with Empathy by Aaron Gustafson @AaronGustafson Further reading: http://is.gd/readlist_empathy Slides available at http://slideshare.net/AaronGustafson This presentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 except where otherwise noted flickr Photo Credits http://www.flickr.com/photos/aarongustafson/galleries/72157633153882514/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aarongustafson/galleries/72157633161513316/
