Format of an empathy map

Say, think, do and feel

Traditional empathy map are split into 4 quadrants (Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels), with the user or persona in the middle. Empathy map provide a glance into who a user is as a whole and are not chronological or sequential.

Say

The "Say" quadrant contains what the user says out loud in an interview or some other usability study. Ideally, it contains verbatim and direct quotes from research.

“I am allegiant to Delta because I never have a bad experience.”

“I want something reliable.”

“I don’t understand what to do from here.”

Think

The "Think" quadrant captures what the user is thinking throughout the experience. Ask yourself (from the qualitative research gathered): what occupies the user’s thoughts? What matters to the user? It is possible to have the same content in both Says and Thinks. However, pay special attention to what users think, but may not be willing to vocalize. Try to understand why they are reluctant to share — are they unsure, self-conscious, polite, or afraid to tell others something?

“This is really annoying.”

“Am I dumb for not understanding this?”

Do

The "Do" quadrant encloses the actions the user takes. From the research, what does the user physically do? How does the user go about doing it?

Refreshes page several times.

Shops around to compare prices.

Feel

The "Feel" quadrant is the user’s emotional state, often represented as an adjective plus a short sentence for context. Ask yourself: what worries the user? What does the user get excited about? How does the user feel about the experience?

Impatient: pages load too slowly

Confused: too many contradictory prices

Worried: they are doing something wrong

Across quadrants

Our users are complex humans. It is natural (and extremely beneficial) to see juxtaposition between quadrants. You will also encounter inconsistencies — for example, seemingly positive actions but negative quotes or emotions coming from the same user. This is when empathy map become treasure map that can uncover nuggets of understanding about our user. It is our job as UX professionals to investigate the cause of the conflict and resolve it.

Some of these quadrants may seem ambiguous or overlapping — for example, it may be difficult to distinguish between Thinks and Feels. Do not focus too much on being precise: if an item may fit into multiple quadrants, just pick one. The 4 quadrants exist only to push our knowledge about users and to ensure we don’t leave out any important dimension. (If you don’t have anything to put into a certain quadrant, it’s a strong signal that you need more user research before proceeding in the design process.)

One user vs Multiple-users empathy map

Empathy map can be driven by any method of qualitative research (and can be sketched even if research is lacking). They can help UX professionals understand what aspects of their user they know and where they would need to gather more user data.

Empathy map can capture one particular user or can reflect an aggregation of multiple users. One-user (individual) empathy map are usually based on a user interview or a user’s log from a diary study.

Aggregated empathy map

Aggregated empathy map represent a user segment, rather than one particular user. They are usually created by combining multiple individual empathy map from users who exhibit similar behaviors and can be grouped into one segment. The aggregated empathy map synthesizes themes seen throughout that user group and can be a first step in the creation of personas. (However, empathy map are not a replacement for personas. But they can be one way to visualize what we know about a persona in an organized, empathetic way.)

Aggregated empathy map can also become ways to summarize other qualitative data like surveys and field studies. For example, an empathy map can be used to communicate a persona, instead of the traditional ‘business card’ approach. As more research is gathered about that persona, you can circle back to the empathy map and add new insights or remove those that have changed or been invalidated.

Why use empathy map

Empathy map should be used throughout any UX process to establish common ground among team members and to understand and prioritize user needs. In user-centered design, empathy map are best used from the very beginning of the design process.

Both the process of making an empathy map and the finished artifact have important benefits for the organization.

Capture who users are

The empathy-mapping process helps distill and categorize your knowledge of the user into one place. It can be used to:

Categorize and make sense of qualitative research (research notes, survey answers, user-interview transcripts)

Discover gaps in your current knowledge and identify the types of research needed to address it. A sparse empathy map indicates that more research needs to be done

Create personas by aligning and grouping empathy map covering individual users

Collect data direct from users

When empathy maps are filled in directly by users, they can act as a secondary data source and represent a starting point for a summary of the user session. Moreover, the interviewer may glean feelings and thoughts from the interviewee that otherwise would have remained hidden.

Conclusion

Visualizing user attitudes and behaviors in an empathy map helps UX teams align on a deep understanding of end users.

As their name suggests, empathy map simply help us build empathy with our end users. When based on real data and when combined with other mapping methods, they can:

Remove bias from our designs and align the team on a single, shared understanding of the user

Discover weaknesses in our research

Uncover user needs that the user themselves may not even be aware of

Understand what drives users’ behaviors

Guide us towards meaningful innovation

In the next article

We will continue with “Process: How to build an empathy map.” Please read the next article, follow the steps, and try creating a valid and meaningful empathy map of your own.