Empathize in UX/UI Design

Instead of sidelining human designers AI might become a valuable partner in the design process AI will not replaces. A person using AI will. You've probably seen this already. And I just want everybody in to think of themselves as the person who will use AI to win the AI race and and thrive in the AI age My personal take on this is that it's far from being able

to replace designers because of a couple of reasons: The first one being that I can't yet figure out what problems to solve. So essentially, AI can't understand that there is this person that has their own particular background, history, experiences, personality quirks, irrational behavior, so their entire psychological landscape and this person has these needs and these needs manifest themselves in a certain environment in a context.

And so AI can't yet make those connections. And it doesn't have systems thinking capabilities in the way that us humans have, plus empathy and other things You can already integrate AI into your design workflow to stay ahead of the curve, enhance your capabilities and futureproof your career.

To create great user experiences. UX design teams use a five phase process: Empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test. In the empathize phase, teams explore the problem they're trying to solve with the product. User researchers conduct interviews with people affected by the problem and review existing knowledge of the issue. The stage is about knowing what needs to be solved and why.

At the defined stage, user researchers turn their knowledge into a research plan and conduct more targeted tests. They'll learn more about their users and what they're currently doing to solve the problem. Then they'll put their findings into deliverables. Tools for the UX designers to reference when they start designing solutions. These include: user Journey Maps, to show how users try and solve the problem and present. Personas, which are details of typical users.

Affinity Diagrams of what those users think, feel, see and do. And "How might we" statements that list the problem teams are trying to solve with the product. In the ideate phase, teams ensure everyone has a shared understanding of the problem. Someone will then lead a brainstorming session where the team will consider solutions for the first time. The team will come up with as many ideas as possible, even if they're silly sounding or impractical. Afterwards, they will evaluate the options and choose the most viable

and effective solutions from those ideas. In the prototyping phase, the UX designers turn those design ideas into testable prototypes. These prototypes could be low fidelity, digital prototypes or even paper prototypes. The UX designers will do their best to make sure the product is intuitive to use and make multiple versions of those design ideas. In the test phase, researchers get participants to test the prototype and get feedback.

From that they deliver usability test reports to the designers. Who then make new prototypes based on that feedback. products will get increasingly polished and refined with cycles of testing until a final design is settled on. Then the design will be developed and shipped. You think it's all over here, but not quite. Product development is cyclical and non-linear. The product can still be revamped based on real user feedback, and in that revamp you may repeat some or all of the design phases.

New information could even set development right back to the planning stage once again.

Do you know this feeling? You have a plane to catch. You arrive at the airport. Well in advance. But you still get stressed. Why is that? Designed with empathy. Bad design versus good design. Let's look into an example of bad design. We can learn from one small screen.

Yes, it's easy to get an overview of one screen, but look close. The screen only shows one out of three schools. That means that the passengers have to wait for up to 4 minutes to find out where to check in. The airport has many small screenings, but they all show the same small bits of information. This is all because of a lack of empathy. Now, let's empathize with all users airport passengers,

their overall need to reach their destination. Their goal? Catch their plane in time. Do they have lots of time when they have a plane to catch? Can they get a quick overview of their flights? Do they feel calm and relaxed while waiting for the information which is relevant to them? And by the way, do they all speak Italian? You guessed it, No. Okay. This may sound hilarious to you, but some designers

actually designed it. Galileo Galilei, because it is the main airport in Tuscany, Italy. They designed an airport where it's difficult to achieve the goal to catch your planes. And it's a stressful experience, isn't it? By default. Stressful to board a plane? No. As a designer, you can empathize with your users needs and the context they're in.

Empathize to understand which goals they want to achieve. Help them achieve them in the best way by using the insights you've gained through empathy. That means that you can help your users airport passengers fulfill their need to travel to their desired destination, obtain their goal to catch their plane on time. They have a lot of steps to go through in order to catch that plane. Design the experience so each step is as quick and smooth as possible

so the passengers stay all become calm and relaxed. The well, the designers did their job in Dubai International Airport, despite being the world's busiest airport. The passenger experience here is miles better than in Galileo Galilei. One big screen gives the passengers instant access to the information they need. Passengers can continue to check in right away. This process is fast and creates a calm experience,

well-organized queues help passengers stay calm and once. Let's see how poorly they designed queues. It's. Dubai airport is efficient and stress free. But can you, as a designer, make it fun and relaxing as well? Yes.

In cheerful airport in Amsterdam, the designers turned parts of the airport into a relaxing living room with sofas and big piano chairs. The designers help passengers attain a calm and happy feeling by adding elements from nature. They give kids the opportunity to play. Adults can get some revitalizing massage. You can go outside to enjoy a bit of real nature.

You can help create green energy while you walk out the door. Charge your mobile, buy your own human power while getting some exercise. Use empathy in your design process to see the world through other people's eyes. To see what they see, feel what they feel and experience things as they do. This is not only about airport design. You can use these insights when you design

apps, websites, services, household machines, or whatever you're designing. Interaction Design Foundation.

Design thinking improves the world around us every day because of its ability to generate groundbreaking solutions. You can contribute  to the future developments in a similar way if you adopt the design thinking mindset into  your own work procedures. But first, you need to know what the five phases of design thinking are. And that's what this video will teach you. Design thinking is a *non-linear, iterative  process* that can have anywhere from three to seven phases, depending on who you talk to.

The model we chose to focus on here at IxDF has five. As we mentioned, the design thinking process  is *non-linear* and *iterative*. This means you don't have to follow the five phases in any particular order. You can carry out the stages in parallel or repeat them and circle back to a previous stage  at any point in the process. Basically, don't ever think these pieces are set in stone. The whole point of design thinking is that it allows you to work in a *dynamic way* to *develop and launch innovative ideas*.

There's no need to use design thinking as a step-by-step process, unless the situation calls for it. Now, you may wonder why we chose to focus on *this* particular variation of the design thinking process. We picked the *5-phase model* because it's the one proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Actually, you may have heard it called its more  common name: the d-school. They are world-renowned for the way they teach and apply design thinking. So, who better to take inspiration and learn from? And there's no need to worry; you won't miss out!

Regardless of which design thinking model you personally choose to focus on, all variants embody the same principles which were first described in 1969 by Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon  when he wrote *The Sciences of the Artificial*. We hope this short video has given you a good  introduction to the five phases of design thinking. We can't wait for you to learn more  about this revolutionary process!