Empathy mapping
🗺️

Empathy mapping

Tag(s)
Research & testing
Cook(s)
Rebecca Blakiston

Nutrition profile

Build empathy for your users by visualizing what they say, do, think, and feel.

Cooking time

10-30 minutes per empathy map.

Perfect for

The early stages of understanding your audience and getting your project team on the same page about user needs. Empathy maps can be helpful as a stepping stone to more robust personas for your audience segments. They are fast and easy to create, so are helpful when you're on a quick timeline.

This recipe focuses on aggregated empathy maps used to reflect a particular group of users. You can also use empathy maps for capturing individual user data, such as data captured in a user interview or diary study.

Example of empathy map for library researcher using Powerpoint
Example of empathy map for library researcher using Powerpoint

Prep work

Empathy maps are best when based on user research rather than assumptions. Ideally, your project team should collect and synthesize user data before creating empathy maps, such as data gathered from user interviews. Alternatively, you can create assumption-based empathy maps.

Each empathy map should reflect a specific audience segment, so you should already have these identified. Examples of audience segments for a new course management system, for example, could be:

  • First-time instructor
  • Returning instructor
  • Student

Also define the scope of what you will be trying to represent. More narrow scopes focused on a particular service or product can lead to more useful empathy maps. For example, you might frame the empathy map around a scenario such as:

  • First-time instructor setting up their online course
  • Returning instructor migrating content to the next semester
  • Student submitting their course assignment

Ingredients

Directions

Empathy maps work best when created collaboratively, so schedule a meeting with your project team. Ask them to review user research data before you meet.

At the meeting, place your persona or target audience segment in the center of the map. Fill out the quadrants of the map collaboratively. It works well to first generate ideas individually, then converge and build upon one another's ideas.

  1. Says. Actual quote(s) from users. Try to find quotes that represent the experience of this audience.
  2. Thinks. What matters to users. This can reflect their values, motivations, or challenges. To distinguish from the "says" quadrant, go beyond specific quotes and include things users might be thinking but hesitate to say aloud.
  3. Does. Behaviors of users. This can include websites, services, or spaces they use that are relevant to your project.
  4. Feels. Emotions of users. This can include adjectives that reflect their emotional state.
Example of empathy map created in Miro
Example of empathy map created in Miro

Plating

Once you have narrowed down and finalized the content for your empathy map, you can create a polished file using PowerPoint, Miro, or other simple graphic programs. Empathy maps can be helpful deliverables to communicate with stakeholders.

Empathy maps can also feed into more detailed personas or inform the process of creating use cases and scenarios in an application.

Pro tips

  • Bring users into the process. For example, you can ask users to fill out maps for themselves, co-design maps with users, or share maps with users for feedback.
  • Adapt the template so it works best for you. Some version of empathy maps include sections for hears and sees or loves and hates. Some merge think and feel together.
  • Build on the basic template by adding sections helpful for your goals. This could things like include user goals, user scenarios, or pain points.

Resources

Empathy map template (PDF)

Empathy map template (PPT)

Credits

Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking by Sarah Gibbons