How to Study Empathy Without Being a Mind Reader

Why Exercise Empathy?

Imagine trying to design something for someone you barely know, with little insight into who they are, what they do, and how they feel. How could you possibly create something that truly meets their needs? The truth is, without stepping into their world, it is incredibly easy to miss the details that matter most.

This is why empathy is such a crucial part of the design thinking process. Understanding users’ experiences and perspectives is crucial for developing products and services that genuinely meet their needs. Fortunately, designers have a wide variety of empathy research methods at their disposal, each offering unique insights that help guide human-centered design.

Methods to The Madness

After looking a little more closely at different empathy research methods, I realized that at their core, they are all about capturing the many layers of someone’s life, including their experiences, insights, and observations. It is more than just collecting facts or surface-level details. The real value comes from reading between the lines and uncovering the feelings, motivations, and challenges that are not immediately visible but are often the most important for designing success.

I found three specific research methods that stood out to me the most, and I will be discussing each of them in this blog. Each method offers a distinct way of building empathy with others. These stood out because they made the most sense to me, and a few are things I have already done in the past without even realizing they were tied to empathy research.

Method #1: shadowing

Shadowing is a research method where designers spend time observing customers or staff in their everyday environment to see what actually happens, rather than relying on what people say. This approach helps uncover small details, routines, and challenges that are easy to miss but can have a big impact on how a product or service is experienced.

I connected most with this method as I’ve had similar experiences during an internship. For example, I shadowed someone in a work setting and gained a much clearer understanding of their daily workflow and the challenges they faced. While I wasn’t intentionally shadowing to practice empathy with a colleague, the same principle applied: I was trying to put myself in their shoes and see their work from their perspective.

Shadowing allows designers to do just that with customers or staff, uncovering insights that might otherwise remain hidden. As Ale Wiecek mentions in “9 Best Empathic Research Methods To Help You Dig Deeper & Truly Understand Your Customer, ” shadowing provides a window into real-time interactions and challenges that are often missed when relying only on surveys or interviews.

By observing these real-life behaviors, shadowing helps designers uncover insights that are often invisible on the surface and provides a stronger foundation for creating solutions that truly fit users’ needs.

#2: The What/Why/How Technique

The What/How/Why technique is a structured approach in design thinking that explores user experiences by asking “What?” to identify the problem, “How?” to explore potential solutions, and “Why?” to understand the underlying reasons.

To give an example, if a team notices that users are abandoning an app before completing a task, they might start by asking “What is causing users to leave?” then something along the lines of “How are users interacting with the app at that point?” and finally “Why do these obstacles exist?” to uncover the root cause and guide improvements.

From there, the team would use the insights gathered from these questions to test potential solutions, such as redesigning the interface, simplifying steps, or adding guidance prompts. They would then observe how users respond to these changes, adjust their ideas based on the results, and continue refining until the root problem is addressed effectively.

When I started reading about this method, I almost instantly thought about how similar it is to the scientific method, where observations lead to hypotheses that are then tested and refined through questioning. What often results from this process is a list of assumptions, things we do not yet have the answers for, that guide further questioning.

The technique helps designers move beyond initial observations and start testing these assumptions. As highlighted by the Interaction Design Foundation in the article “What Are 5 Whys?,” this method uncovers the underlying reasons behind user behaviors and reveals issues that are often not apparent at first glance.

By asking each question carefully, designers can identify patterns and root causes, gaining a clearer picture of the real challenges users face.

#3: Why, Why, Why, Why, Why

The final empathy research method I will be discussing, as hinted at in the subtitle above, is the Five Whys method. This technique involves repeatedly asking “Why?” to dig beneath surface-level behaviors and uncover the root causes of user challenges. I personally like to think of it as similar to how a curious child keeps asking “Why?” until they truly understand the answer.

To illustrate further, consider a team that notices students frequently submit assignments late on an online platform. Using the Five Whys, they might start by asking:

Why are students submitting late? —> Because they miss the deadlines

Why do they miss the deadlines? —> Because they are confused about when assignments are due

Why are they confused about the due dates? —> Because the platform does not send clear reminders

Why does this platform cause confusion? —> Because the notification system is not set up for each course properly

Why is the system not set up correctly? —> Because instructors are not told how to properly set up the notifications

1. Why are students submitting late? → Because they miss the deadlines.
2. Why do they miss the deadlines? → Because they are confused about when assignments are due.
3. Why are they confused about the due dates? → Because the platform does not send clear reminders.
4. Why does the platform fail to send reminders? → Because the notification system is not set up for each course properly.
5. Why is the system not set up correctly? → Because instructors are not trained on how to manage notifications.

From there, the team can see that the root issue is not just students forgetting deadlines but a lack of proper setup and guidance on the platform. This insight can then inform solutions such as better onboarding for instructors or automated reminders for students, directly addressing the underlying problem rather than just the symptom.

In design thinking, this method is especially valuable because it turns assumptions into insights, helping teams create solutions that truly address the underlying needs of the people they are designing for. By asking the right questions and following the path of answers, designers can move past symptoms and get to the core of what users really experience and care about.

MY Feelings on empathy

Exploring empathy research methods like shadowing, the What/How/Why method, and the Five Whys shows a clear pattern: all of them help designers understand users on a deeper level. Each method offers a unique way to do this. Shadowing lets designers step into someone’s world and observe their real experiences, the What/How/Why technique helps uncover assumptions and test ideas, and the Five Whys gets to the root of why people behave the way they do.

Together, these approaches push us to move beyond surface-level observations and focus on the real human experiences that matter most.

Empathy research is not just about collecting answers. It is about asking the right questions and noticing what is often hidden. These methods encourage curiosity, careful listening, and thoughtful reflection, guiding designers to create solutions that genuinely meet user needs.

So, can you empathize with me on this blog?