In this Make:able toolkit, we’ll be guiding you in developing empathy for your end user. This involves:
- Learning not only about their disability, but their personality, lifestyle and daily challenges.
- Analysing your insights to frame a specific challenge to solve.
In terms of framing a specific challenge to solve, you might find that when you first meet your end user, they already have something in mind that they’d like designing for them. This is a great starting point but don’t forget to go through the full empathy process and learn about all aspects of their lives. Firstly, you might discover surprising things that help you to reframe the challenge in a better way or you might discover a completely different and more important challenge to take on (more info on framing challenges later in the toolkit). And secondly, regardless of whether the challenge is reframed or not, you’ll gain a whole range of insights that will help you when it comes to designing.
Watch the overview video below before browsing through the empathy methods and tips. Then use your key learnings to plan and implement your empathy strategy. Remember that some methods may be better suited to you and your end user so think carefully about which to use. Additionally, you don’t have to stick to the methods in this toolkit – feel free to explore others!