What kind of research model is Empathic Design?
Empathic design, a form of observational research, has come to the attention of many corporations and companies as a valid and useful method addressing the tacit needs and wants of a set of customers. Employing the process of watching without interfering as a phenomenon occurs in the natural environment, empathic research bypasses the traditional focus group and survey method and instead concentrates on viewing the user doing her everyday activities in her own environment. It works on the governing principle that knowledge of how customers use products tells companies more than the customer themselves can.
For example, imagine a Hewlett Packard product developer is observing a surgeon in an operating room who is performing an intricate surgery by using a television screen to guide his scalpel. As personnel move about the operating room, the surgeon's view of the screen periodically is obscured, but he does not complain. Although the surgeon has not asked for an improved product, the developer comes up with the idea for a helmet with a suspended screen that has the potential to substantially increase the accuracy of the surgeon's work.1
1 Leonard, Dorothy and Jeffrey F. Rayport. Spark Innovation Through Empathic Design. Boston: Harvard Business Review Nov-Dec 1997. Reprint #97606, page 107.
