When was the last time you were frustrated or dissatisfied when you visited a website?
Perhaps you have a specific example in mind or you have the feeling that it happens from time to time and therefore blurs a little. You are not alone in this, we all feel the same way. We are all customers, users of digital products and we are all frustrated time and again. So as service providers, we should actually know better if we've experienced these situations ourselves, right?
Why an empathy map?
The question above is not so easy to answer and this is exactly where empathy maps come into play. Customer centricity and user experience (UX) have long been key points in good product design and the focus is shifting more and more towards the target group. Nevertheless, the balancing act between innovative, technically complex solutions and meeting the needs of customers is a constant challenge.
What is an empathy map?
Originally introduced by Dave Gray, the empathy map is one of many helpful tools from design thinking. These tools help to better understand a target group, gain new insights and optimize a product accordingly. They are a method for creating a basis for empathizing with customers. This can involve an existing product, but also a new product.
The empathy map is often used in UX research, but also in product and project management. As the various tools from design thinking can be used universally, they have long since found their way into other areas.
How does an empathy map work?
First, a persona is created. A persona is a fictitious person who represents a target group. This persona can be created based on existing knowledge about customers or users or can be used to externalize hypotheses, ideas and thoughts.
In the next step, this is placed in the focus of 4-6 quadrants, in which various questions are answered from the perspective of the fictitious customer.
The core questions:
Thinking and feeling
What are the persona's thoughts and feelings?
Listening
What does the persona hear from friends, relatives, colleagues?
Seeing
What does the persona see in their environment? What visual impressions influence them?
Saying and doing
What does the persona talk about? How does it behave in everyday life, on the Internet, in dealing with the product?
Pains and gains:
In addition to the 4-6 main quadrants, there are often two more that focus on the challenges, frustrations, goals and desires.
What does an empathy map look like in practice?
The power of the empathy map
An empathy map offers several advantages that go far beyond pure user analysis. In particular, it offers added value for collaboration on projects, both within and across teams.
Promoting teamwork
Creating an empathy map together helps to unite different perspectives and thus develop a concrete picture of potential customers. On the one hand, this promotes teamwork and, on the other, ensures that everyone involved is on the same page.
Understanding the target group
A detailed examination of the needs and challenges of users provides insights that are invaluable in the development of user-oriented solutions and in marketing.
Improve communication
As a visual tool that is easy to understand, an empathy map facilitates the communication of complex requirements and shifts the focus to the product itself, to the customer's relationship with the product.
Increase customer satisfaction
A greater focus on customers inevitably leads to products and services that appeal to them better. This in turn improves customer satisfaction and loyalty to the brand and the product.
Why we as a Drupal agency rely on empathy maps
At arocom, we see it as our job to create outstanding websites and maintain them to high standards. For us, this also includes providing our partners with useful solutions and developing websites with the greatest possible benefit for the end user.
As an agency with a focus on web development, we are able to put the knowledge gained from our workshops into practice and make targeted improvements to the product, the website, and shorten paths.
That is why we focus on user-centered development, strategic consulting and workshops.
What does such a workshop look like at arocom?
Creating an empathy map is a collaborative process, which is why we rely on practice-oriented workshops.
We first define the target group together, create one or more personas, work in teams to develop answers in various scenarios and conclude with a joint discussion and creation of an action plan to ensure the practical application of the insights gained. However, we not only want to impart knowledge during the workshop, but also provide the necessary tools so that the empathy map does not just remain part of a workshop.
Conclusion: Empathy maps as the key to a successful product
Empathy maps allow us to better understand users' needs, actions, ideas and desires, ensuring that our projects are not only technically successful, but also strategically successful. By combining Drupal with a user-centered strategy, we create websites that not only work, but also inspire.
We invite you to take part in our workshops and discover the possibilities of this powerful tool together with us. After all, understanding your target group is the first step to a successful digital presence.
