INT335 Unit 2: Empathy, Observation and Problem Identification

Vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of empathy, qualitative and quantitative user research, field observation methods, interview strategies, empathy mapping, and problem formulation from INT335 Unit 2.

Empathy

The ability to understand another person's feelings, experiences, motivations, frustrations, and goals; in Design Thinking, it means viewing the world directly from the user's point of view.

Sympathy

Feeling sorrow or pity for someone from a distance without experiencing or deeply understanding their situation, producing charity rather than design solutions.

Compassion

The combination of empathy with the explicit decision and commitment to take action, resulting in tangible change.

The Trap ("You Are Not the User")

The common design fallacy of assuming you understand user needs because you use the product yourself, treating personal experience as the entire sample rather than a single hypothesis.

Computational Empathy

The application of empathy principles to software engineering by designing systems that interpret and respond to human emotions and behaviour, typically leveraging artificial intelligence.

CoWIN (Case Study)

India's national vaccination management system that addressed extreme user diversity by implementing assisted pathways (self, helpdesk, on-site), a common backend with multiple front-ends, and open slot APIs to prevent exclusion.

User Research

The systematic process of investigating users' needs, behaviours, goals, and challenges before building solutions to eliminate guesswork and support evidence-based design choices.

Qualitative Research

An exploratory research approach that uses interviews, observations, and small purposive samples of $5\text{--}20$ participants to understand the underlying "why" and "how" behind user behaviours.

Quantitative Research

A structured, objective research methodology using surveys, analytics, and large samples of $100+$ participants to measure "what" and "how many" and validate hypotheses statistically.

Field Observation

A contextual research method where designers act as a "fly on the wall" to discreetly observe users in their natural environments without disrupting or directing their actions.

AEIOU Framework

A structured observation heuristic used to categorize ethnographic field findings across five dimensions: Activities, Environment, Interactions, Objects, and Users.

Activities (AEIOU Framework)

The specific tasks, actions, workflows, and process steps that people carry out to accomplish a particular objective.

Environment (AEIOU Framework)

The physical or digital setting in which activities occur, characterized by factors like lighting, acoustic noise, temperature, physical space, and infrastructure.

Interactions (AEIOU Framework)

The direct exchanges and touchpoints occurring between users and systems, users and products, or between different individuals.

Objects (AEIOU Framework)

The tangible or digital instruments, devices, hardware, software applications, and tools employed by individuals during an activity.

Users (AEIOU Framework)

The specific individuals under observation, identified by their personal roles, contextual behaviours, goals, and demographic traits.

What–How–Why Framework

A three-tiered observation tool that transitions systematically from recording objective actions (What), to assessing execution and emotion (How), to deducing underlying motivations (Why).

The Five Whys

An iterative root-cause inquiry method that repeatedly asks "Why?" to peel away superficial symptoms and reveal the systemic or emotional foundation of a problem.

Grand Tour Technique

An interview questioning tactic that prompts participants to describe an entire routine or past experience chronologically from start to finish.

80/20 Rule of Interviewing

The guideline specifying that an interviewer should spend $80\%$ of the session actively listening and only $20\%$ speaking, avoiding leading prompts or solution pitching.

Explicit Needs

Clearly articulated, tangible requests and criteria that users directly state they want during interviews or surveys.

Implicit Needs

Unspoken, fundamental emotional or psychological needs—such as confidence, trust, safety, and control—that users cannot readily articulate and must be inferred from observation.

Say–Do Gap

The documented disparity between what users state they believe, value, or prefer and what their observable actions reveal in practice.

User Pain Points

Specific obstacles, frustrations, or friction points users experience while attempting to fulfill a goal, classified under process, financial, support, or productivity categories.

Namma Yatri (Case Study)

A Bengaluru auto-rickshaw mobility platform that focused on service provider empathy, addressing driver powerlessness and commission deductions via an open, zero-commission subscription model.

User Persona

A realistic, fictional character archetype summarizing empirical user research, in which every goal, frustration, behaviour, and quote is strictly traceable to real interview data.

Target Archetype

A high-level audience classification based on broad shared traits, behaviours, and demographics used for segmentation, rather than an individual persona profile.

Empathy Map

A collaborative synthesis matrix divided into four quadrants—Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels—used to integrate user observations and expose behavioural discrepancies.

Problem Statement

An actionable design challenge defined through the formula: [User] needs [need] because [insight], which identifies the core issue without prescribing a specific solution.

How Might We (HMW) Questions

Optimistic, open-ended query formulations that reframe identified human pain points into constructive opportunities for design ideation.

The Goldilocks Test

A scoping filter for HMW questions ensuring they are neither too broad to yield concrete ideas nor too narrow to smuggle an engineered solution directly into the prompt.