"When we understand and can predict the action of another we can use that to our advantage. This type of empathy is often called cognitive empathy and it is about understanding the ‘world view’ of someone else.
But cognitive empathy is only one of two separate and distinct elements that make up empathy. The other is termed affective empathy — the ability to feel the emotions of another...
People who can understand the world view of another with no emotional connection are psychopaths...
In design this distinction matters. It could be argued that a lot of advertising is psychopathic. We use very clever people to understand what makes others tick and then we use that insight to sell them sugar, fat, alcohol and a 1001 other unhealthy things...
We’re hardwired to be empathetic with individuals…. but not crowds.
When we design we mostly need to design for a group of people and not individuals. But it’s hard to present lots of data from lots of people without it feeling flat and uninspiring. It’s hard to care...
Maintain the humanity of the people you’re designing for. Bring them to life with videos, photos, audio clips. Users have names and faces and individual experiences. It’s easier to design for real people than abstracted data presented in dreary bullet points."
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