I remember the day as if it was yesterday.\u00a0 In 2004, I was a Technical Specialist for a large downtown law firm.\u00a0 One of my core responsibilities was the delivery of one to one technical training (on Microsoft 1998) to lawyers.\u00a0 I remember standing in a senior partner\u2019s office showing him how to use automatic paragraph numbering.\u00a0 He looked up at me and said, \u201cWhen you try to teach me something new, do you know what is important to me?\u201d\u00a0 I can remember thinking; I have no idea and I don\u2019t want to look silly in front of him.\u00a0 He smiled and said, \u201cI want to always know how to complete a task using the least number of keystrokes.\u00a0 Every keystroke on the computer takes time.\u00a0 Time is what I bill to my clients.\u00a0\u00a0 I want to bill them the least amount of time when it comes to revising documents.\u00a0 My job is to research information and find ways of helping them.\u00a0 My job is not to revise documents.\u201d\u00a0 That interaction with the senior partner changed my life forever as I got a clear picture of what I needed to consider when developing learning programs for lawyers.\u00a0 I understood his situation, his desire and needs as a professional and as a person.\u00a0 In retrospect \u2013 was he giving me information so that I could incorporate empathetic design?<\/p>\n
In the 1990s and early 2000s the only computer-based learning I facilitated was in a classroom or on a one to one basis.\u00a0 As the instructor and designer, I saw my students and I knew if or when they were engaged or disinterested.\u00a0 It was easy to focus on them, their life experiences, their moods and emotions and because I witnessed this emotion (Mattelm\u00e4ki, Vaajakallio & Koskinen, 2016), I had the opportunity to reiterate the program I was teaching to them.\u00a0 Sometimes, \u2018on the fly\u2019 I would read their faces or listen to their stories and change the program to meet their needs. When I understand our clients\/users, I have the ability to design with empathy.\u00a0 If I do not know or understand my clients, I develop programs that may not be relevant to them or their needs.\u00a0 In 2004, I could apply empathetic design in the moment, however, in 2020 when I design learning for a digital environment I have to incorporate empathetic design into the design process.<\/p>\n
In 2020 the focus is on creating learning in a digital environment and therefore, I do not necessarily see my users and interact with them the same way I did in 2004.\u00a0 For this reason, it is important to consider empathetic design when I create\u00a0 programs. Not only does empathetic design involve being curious about what it is like to be someone else and walk in someone else\u2019s shoes (Suri, as cited in Mattelm\u00e4ki, et. al. 2016) but also it involves understanding someone else and appreciating their current life or circumstances.\u00a0 When I design learning with empathy I am connecting to the participant, their needs, desires and most importantly I am creating learning that applies to their life and their values.\u00a0 I interpret this as becoming \u2018one\u2019 with my participants. As an instructional designer, does the ability to become \u2018one\u2019 with our participants ever become second nature?<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Mattelm\u00e4ki, T., Vaajakallio, K., & Koskinen, I. (2014). What Happened to Empathic Design? Design Issues<\/em>, 30<\/em>(1), 67\u201377. https:\/\/doi-org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca\/10.1162\/DESI_a_00249<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I remember the day as if it was yesterday.\u00a0 In 2004, I was a Technical Specialist for a large downtown law firm.\u00a0 One of my core responsibilities was the delivery of one to one technical training (on Microsoft 1998) to… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt524"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}