Walk in the shoes

1. WALK IN THE SHOES
DEEPLYUNDERSTANDTHE USERBY BEINGTHE USERFORA WHILE
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2. WHEN NEEDED RATIONALE
WALK IN THESHOES
Immerses oneself in the same context and
do what the user normally does
Develops a deep understanding of the
user’s frustrations, delights, beliefs,
aspirations
Gives informed intuition from embodied
experience, is complementary to
observations
Is first hand information, so cannot be
filtered or interpreted by what others say
about users or what users self-report (such
as market research, focus groups)
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I need to deeply
understand the
user’s pain
points
I want to feel
what the user
feels, see what
the user sees

3. ESSENCE POINTERS
WALK IN THESHOES
Do what your users do, use attributes
to become a more realistic version of
your user
E.g. when improving the hospital experience, become
a patient, lie in a hospital bed, sit in the waiting area
E.g. wear spectacles with greased-up glasses
when becoming a person with vision disabilities
Take pictures of what you go through,
zoom in both on frustrations as well as
moments of delight
Develop empathy for your user (you
can only truly appreciate and
understand the user if you see through
his eyes, feel with her heart). This is
different from sympathy
Reflect on your observations, discover
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Deeply
understand the
user by being the
user for a while
Sources of Inspiration: IDEO method cards; Stanford d-school