Treat People With Kindness

This past September, I had the incredible opportunity to attend a conference with the UX team. This conference covered a wide range of topics, including design, strategy, business, and a strong emphasis on AI.

One of my favorite talks emphasized the importance of demonstrating and having empathy not only for our users, but also for our colleagues. That is also the topic I'd like to discuss today.

The user and how we meet their needs is our top priority as creatives in our industry.

Empathy is one of those soft skills that we should emphasize on a daily basis as we strive to better understand our users. Empathy is defined as the action of comprehending, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing another person's feelings, thoughts, and experience.

Many if not all of us, myself have included have had on the proverbial blinders when it comes to other teams and departments. We get wrapped up so much in our own world, that we overlook those users (our coworkers) who will also be affected by work.

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. While working on a project for another company, I thought a design review with my development team had gone well. Following the meeting, the lead QA grabbed my arm and asked whether I was "out of my mind." Perplexed, I questioned as to what he meant. He said, "Instead of asking the team if they liked your design, you should have asked them how they felt about the design and if they could even build it?" "I discovered that the design I was recommending would have a direct impact not only on the developers' workload, but also on the entire product timelines and, ultimately, on their feelings about the project and the team." I hadn't considered the experience of those on my team who would be building it. My lack of empathy for those on my team may have driven a wedge between our groups, which could have had a negative effect on not only the entire team, but also the product we were developing.

I quickly reversed course and apologized to not only the QA, but also the developers and anyone else on the team for my carelessness. We were ultimately able to build a better project because I ensured that the empathy I demonstrated to the user was also demonstrated to the rest of my team.

Much like everything else in life, demonstrating or learning to be more empathetic is a lifelong goal, but there are things we can do right now to help build that much-needed soft skill.

• Show Humility
• Lose the Ego
• Be a Good Listener
• Be Sincere
• Be Honest
• Really Care

Taking an empathic approach to our design or project thinking is critical not only to the success of the product we are creating, but also to the team that will bring that project to life. We are all aware that in order to build a better project, we must first understand our users; our teams should take the same approach. When we take the time to understand our own teams' needs, wants, and even frustrations, we are preparing them not only for project success, but also for the success we all strive for as professionals.

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JVD

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This month's newsletter title is from the Harry Styles song Treat People With Kindness from his second studio album Fine Line