When we teach Design Thinking at the Wond’ry, participants are often surprised to learn that the first phase of the process is empathy. We can see the puzzled looks: Why not start with ideation or problem definition? That confusion turns into genuine perplexity when we explain that empathy, though it seems simple and familiar, is one of the hardest phases to get right. After all, don’t we all feel we are empathic humans?
The goal of innovation and design is to create positive change in the world. But for that change to matter, it must be adopted–the stage of empathy must be successfully completed. Whether we’re designing a new product, process, service, or framework, it only becomes successful when people embrace it. And here’s the catch: adoption isn’t driven by the designer’s enthusiasm, cleverness, or technical skill. Instead, it’s driven by a user’s belief that the change will make their world better.
When something makes sense and resonates emotionally, people adopt it. When it doesn’t, they ignore it—or worse, resist it entirely. Designing something that “makes sense” is complicated because human decisions are driven by feelings, emotions, and needs—factors that vary unpredictably between individuals and contexts. These emotional variables often outweigh even affordability or technical performance.
In Emotional Design, Donald Norman argues that our feelings shape what we find desirable or repulsive. He makes a compelling case: if we want to predict whether something will be embraced, we must understand how it makes people feel.
In some situations, recognizing emotions is easy. When someone cries or frowns in frustration, we instinctively recognize those feelings. We’ve experienced similar moments—whether it’s the pain of a relationship break or the irritation of a defective product—and our familiarity with those emotions allows us to respond with sympathy.
But what happens when the emotions are unfamiliar or we don’t share the same perspective? Worse yet, what if we disagree with how someone interprets their situation? That’s where empathy becomes essential in the design thinking process
Empathy is the skill of stepping into someone else’s world—not just seeing their perspective but understanding how they make sense of it and trying to interpret their feelings. It’s not just knowing how they feel; it’s understanding why they feel that way.
Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
True empathy requires more than just seeing another’s perspective. It involves making a genuine effort to understand how they experience their world and why they feel the way they do. It means putting ourselves in their shoes long enough to design with their needs and emotions in mind.
At the Wond’ry, we teach aspiring innovators how to carry this mindset into every phase of the design process. By doing so, they’re better equipped to predict how their design decisions will make users feel. This hard-earned empathy is a powerful tool—one that can guide designers toward choices that not only make sense but feel right. And when a design resonates emotionally, it stands a far better chance of being embraced, adopted, and, ultimately, making the positive change we set out to create.