{"id":273,"date":"2019-06-30T19:03:02","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T02:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/?p=273"},"modified":"2019-06-30T19:03:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T02:03:02","slug":"empathy-methods-for-instructional-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/empathy-methods-for-instructional-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Empathy Methods for Instructional Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash<\/p>\n

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Looking through another\u2019s lens can be said to be at the heart of empathic design. As Matthews et al., (2017) indicates, \u201cInstructional designers are also increasingly encouraged to express empathy in their work (p. 486). As instructional designers, it is imperative to see the problem through the lens of the people that we are designing for. Matthews et al. (2017) identifies three notions of empathy that were derived through the research with instructional designers in the field. These notions are set out as caring for the person, identifying with the person and walking in their shoes (p. 488).<\/p>\n

In preparation for designing a different approach to delivering policies and procedures training to staff, I also must take an empathic stance so as to design an instructional tool that will meet the needs of the users.<\/p>\n

Kouprie & Visser, (2009) tell us that empathy can be broken into two parts, affective, identifying with feelings of the user and cognitive, understanding the users\u2019 perspective and that \u201cCreating the right balance between affective resonance and cognitive reasoning is a basic issue of empathy\u201d (p. 442).<\/p>\n

Stanford University Institute of Designs\u2019 Bootcamp Bootleg offers many methods to utilize in order to gain empathy. When looking into these many methods it became apparent that, not only would more than one of these methods be appropriate for this undertaking, some go very well together in succession. As a result the methods that I have chosen are as follows:<\/p>\n

\"\"Overall, throughout the process of gaining empathy, assuming a beginner’s mindset<\/strong> will be of particular use. The development of policies and procedures are often a core component at the management level and managerial understanding can exist at a different level than that of an entry level employee who may be quite unfamiliar with interpretation and application of policies. Assuming a beginner’s mindset will allow for application of an unbiased and curious stance which will allow for an empathic framework of stepping into the user’s shoes (Stanford University Institute of Design, 2016, p. 9).<\/p>\n

\"\"Interviewing for empathy<\/strong> will be useful as a way to gain access to the user\u2019s thoughts, perceptions and feelings as well as a method to explore and record these interactions. Interviews will assist in developing a path toward the cultivation of deep empathy (Stanford University Institute of Design, 2016, p. 12).<\/p>\n

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As a way of unpacking the data from the interviews, the use of the empathy map<\/strong> will assist in identifying the users\u2019 needs as well as any insights that can be pulled to “better respond to a design challenge” (Stanford University Institute of Design, 2016, p. 18).<\/p>\n

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As a final step, the Why-How Laddering<\/strong> may be useful as a way to drill down into the needs of the user as identified in the empathy map, making use of any insights that were gained to go from abstract needs to more specific needs (Stanford University Institute of Design, 2016, p. 23).<\/p>\n

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Understanding that an identified tension of conflicting needs of multiple stakeholders may arise as identifies my Matthews et al., (2017), the empathy map may prove to be an essential component for categorizing contradictions between what users say and what they do. This may prove to help reduce the apparent conflicting needs (p. 489).<\/p>\n

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References<\/p>\n

Kouprie, M., & Visser, F. S. (2009). A framework for empathy in design: stepping into and out of the user\u2019s life. Journal of Engineering Design<\/em>, 20<\/em>(5), 437\u2013448. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/09544820902875033<\/p>\n

Matthews, M. T., Williams, G. S., Yanchar, S. C., & McDonald, J. K. (2017). Empathy in Distance Learning Design Practice. TechTrends<\/em>, 61<\/em>(5), 486\u2013493. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11528-017-0212-2<\/p>\n

Morris, H. E., & Warman, G. (2015). Using Design Thinking in Higher Education. Educause<\/em>, (September 2014), 1\u201315. Retrieved from http:\/\/er.educause.edu\/articles\/2015\/1\/using-design-thinking-in-higher-education<\/p>\n

Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). Bootcamp Bootleg. Retrieved from http:\/\/dschool-old.stanford.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf<\/p>\n

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    Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash   Looking through another\u2019s lens can be said to be at the heart of empathic design. As Matthews et al., (2017) indicates, \u201cInstructional designers are also increasingly encouraged to express empathy in… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt527"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0059\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}