EMPATHIC EXPERIENCE DESIGN!

The Effect of Extraordinary User Experiences on

Customer Needs Analysis and Product Redesign!

Open Innovation Conference!

IC2 Institute!
November 8-9, 2012!

Carolyn Conner Seepersad, PhD!

Associate Professor!
Mechanical Engineering Department!
The University of Texas at Austin!

Collaborators!
Danny Johnson, Matt Saunders, Joseph Lin!
Nicole Genco, Katja Holtta-Otto!

Funding: NSF CMMI-0825713 !

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 1!
WHY INNOVATE?!

"...Innovation is the only

mechanism that can
actually change things in
substantive ways.
Innovation is where
creative thinking and
practical know-how meet
to do new things in new
ways, and old things in
Kano Diagram [1]!
new ways.” Dr. Charles
Vest, President, National
Academy of Engineering
[2] !
[1] Kano, 1984, Journal of Japanese Society of Quality Control!
[2] Quoted by Friedman, NY Times, 9/7/08.! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 2!
HOW TO INNOVATE?!

•  Regarding Engineering Design!

–  “Should a designer add an additional function,
reduce product size, make the product easier to
use, or pursue other options? What are the
engineering-level characteristics of innovative
products?” [3]!

[3] Saunders M. N., Seepersad C. C., and Holtta-Otto K., 2009, “The Characterstics of Innovative,
Mechanical Products,” Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical
Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, pp. 1-10.! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 3!
WHAT IS AN INNOVATIVE
MECHANICAL PRODUCT? !
To investigate this question, we:!
•  Analyzed 197 award-winning products. !
•  Identified engineering characteristics of
innovation. !
•  Investigated which characteristics were most
prevalent in award-winning products, relative
to competing products [3]. !

[3] Saunders, M. N., C. C. Seepersad and K. Holtta-Otto, 2011, “The Characteristics of Innovative
Mechanical Products,” ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 133, No. 2, pp. 021009.!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 4!
 ENGINEERING CHARACTERISTICS OF
INNOVATIVE MECHANICAL PRODUCTS!

External User
Architecture! Function! Cost!
interactions! interactions!
• physical
• material flow! • size! • additional • purchase cost!
demands!
• energy flow! • layout! function! • maintenance
• sensory
• inform. flow! • usage environ.! cost!
demands!
• interact. w/
• cognitive
infrastructure!
demands!

[3] Saunders, M. N., C. C. Seepersad and K. Holtta-Otto, 2011, “The Characteristics of Innovative
Mechanical Products,” ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 133, No. 2, pp. 021009.!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 5!
ANALYSIS OF AWARD-WINNING
PRODUCTS BY INNOVATION
CHARACTERISTICS AND CATEGORIES!

[3] Saunders, M. N., C. C. Seepersad and K. Holtta-Otto, 2011, “The

Characteristics of Innovative Mechanical Products,” ASME Journal of
Mechanical Design, Vol. 133, No. 2, pp. 021009.! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 6!
HOW TO STIMULATE INNOVATION
FOR EASE OF USE? !
Empathic Experience Design!
!
•  Expose designer (or customer)
to challenging usage contexts!
–  challenging usage environments
(e.g., moisture, noise, darkness)!
–  challenging means of interacting
with a product (physically,
sensorially, cognitively)!
•  Help designers!
–  Empathize with customers
under a variety of conditions!
–  Design for the types of context-
related latent needs that often
lead to innovative products!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 7!

ROOTS OF EMPATHIC
EXPERIENCE DESIGN!
Lead Users [4]! Quick-release seats!
Reinforced Frames!
•  Push a product to its
limits and experience
needs prior to the
general population!
•  Benefit significantly
from improvements to
a product!
•  Often innovate
themselves! Motorcycle Aftermarket Forks!
brake levers!
Drum Brakes!
[4] Von Hippel, E., 2005, Democratizing Innovation, MIT Press.!
Photo: http://www.sonic.net/~ckelly/Seekay/mtbwelcome.htm! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 8!
ROOTS OF EMPATHIC
EXPERIENCE DESIGN!
Empathic Design [5]!
•  Conduct observations in the
customerʼs own environment!
•  Often involves ethnographic
techniques!

Patricia Moore (at age 26)!

Spent 3 years as elderly person!
[5] Leonard, D., and Rayport, J. F., 1997, Harvard Business Review.!
Photos: boston.com and rit.edu! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 9!
ROOTS OF EMPATHIC
EXPERIENCE DESIGN!

Photos: nytimes.com (MIT AGELAB) and www.design.ncsu.edu (Ford Motor Company)!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 10!
EMPATHIC EXPERIENCE DESIGN!
!
•  Allow the designer (or
customer) to empathize with
lead users via simulated lead
user-type experiences!
•  Expose designer (or customer)
to challenging usage contexts!
–  challenging usage environments
(e.g., moisture, noise, darkness)!
–  challenging means of interacting
with a product (physically,
sensorially, cognitively)!
•  Help designers!
–  Empathize with customers
under a variety of conditions!
–  Design for the types of context-
related latent needs that often
lead to innovative products!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 11!

EMPATHIC EXPERIENCE DESIGN FOR
CUSTOMER NEEDS ANALYSIS AND
PRODUCT REDESIGN!
1. Define 2. Define 3. Design
Begin with
Design Typical and Empathic
Prototype!
Problem! Lead Users! Experiences!

4. Implement
With Customers for
Empathic With Designers
Customer Needs
Experiences! for Idea
Analysis! Generation!

5. Perform
5. Perform Idea
Customer
Generation!
Interviews!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 12!

 LIMITATION
LEVEL OF LIMITATION
EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION

lab goggles with fine grid on transparency paper (*allows for variability of levels)

Reduce

low quality welding goggles

Reduce scope
blinders on side of glasses, holes in restrictive sheet

Sight

Completely dark room

Blind
Blindfold

enclose product in dark container with hand holes

Sensory

ear plugs

Hearing
Deaf
ear protection headphones used during gun shooting

headphones with sound louder than ambient noise

Touch
Reduce
add layer between user and prototype (gloves)

Ability to distinguish tastes
consume more of a certain flavor prior to consumption (bitter, salty, sour, sweet, savory)

Taste

Reduce
reduce or eliminate sense of smell

close nose (clip)

Eliminate

isolate nose (snorkel goggles)

Smell

Reduce
smell stronger smell prior

Heighten
breathe strips to open nostrils

 

oven mittens, gloves, mittens

Hand

Physical

tape fingers together with medical tape

one hand behind back

Dexterity
Arm

carrying weight or bulk with one hand

jumpsuit adding bulk, weight, joint padding

Body

wear protective equipment (hockey/football pads)

 

recite information (phone number, alphabet backwards)

Distract
Recite nonsenense syllables (ʻthe-the-the,ʼ ʻza-za-zaʼ)

read off prompter, talk on phone/carrying conversation

Cognitive

answer questions/simple math problems every 15-30 seconds

Task Switching
play a game while interacting

could add incentive/reward to encourage performance

 

Night
dark room with light source (flashlight reflecting off wall, projector with dark screen/tape on lens)

Rain
mounted sprinkler under canopy

Environment
Temperature
change room temperature

add rocks/sticks on floor
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 13!
Location

confine space in small or low ceiling room

EMPATHIC EXPERIENCE DESIGN FOR
CUSTOMER NEEDS ANALYSIS AND
PRODUCT REDESIGN!
1. Define 2. Define 3. Design
Begin with
Design Typical and Empathic
Prototype!
Problem! Lead Users! Experiences!

4. Implement
With Customers for
Empathic With Designers
Customer Needs
Experiences! for Idea
Analysis! Generation!

5. Perform
5. Perform Idea
Customer
Generation!
Interviews!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 14!

CAN EMPATHIC EXPERIENCES HELP 

CUSTOMERS BECOME INNOVATORS?!

1. Define 2. Define 3. Design

Begin with
Design Typical and Empathic
Prototype!
Problem! Lead Users! Experiences!

4. Implement
With Customers for
Empathic
Customer Needs
Experiences!
Analysis!

5. Perform
Customer
Interviews!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 15!

CAN EMPATHIC EXPERIENCES HELP 

CUSTOMERS BECOME INNOVATORS?

! Direct Needs! Typical Customer Needs Analysis! Latent Needs!

Obvious! Non-obvious!
Incremental! Empathic Experience Design?! Innovative!
Product Variants! Breakthrough Products!

www.rei.com! www.popsci.com!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 16!
HYPOTHESIS!

Customers who engage in empathic experiences

during customer needs interviews will supply a
greater variety of customer needs and a larger
number of latent needs than those supplied by
customers who do not engage in the empathic
experiences.!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 17!

A CUSTOMER NEEDS ANALYSIS (CNA)
EXPERIMENT!
1.  Selected Product: Familiar dome tent (with new, innovative
product available, but unknown to participants)!
2.  Define Typical vs. Lead User!
–  Typical: Young, healthy weekend camper in good weather!
–  Lead: Camper assembling tent in cold and dark conditions,
possibly with heavy gloves!
3.  Design Empathic Experiences!
–  Oven mitts to simulate cold and/or limited dexterity!
–  Dark room to simulate late evening/night assembly!
4.  Implement Empathic Experiences (with Customers)!
–  Control Condition: Articulated Use with No Empathic
REI Camp Dome Tent! Experiences!
–  Experimental Condition: Articulated Use with Empathic
Experiences!
–  Interviewing Technique: Free Speech followed by Categorical
Questioning (Categories: Size, Shape, Weight, Safety,
Aesthetics, Setup, Transport …)!
–  40 undergraduate students (engineers and non-engineers)!
5.  Analyze results for breadth of feedback and # of suggestions for
design changes!
–  Breadth measured by # of categories mentioned!
–  Latent needs defined as suggestions for design changes!

Nemo Inflatable Tent!

Lin, J. and C. C. Seepersad, 2007,ASME DETC Design Theory and Methodology Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 18!
Conference. Paper Number: DETC2007-35302.!
RESULTS!

Average # of Categories Average # of Latent CN!

7.0! Breached! 8.0!

6.0! 7.0!

6.0!
5.0!

5.0!
4.0!
4.0!
3.0!
3.0!

2.0!
2.0!

1.0! 1.0!

0.0! 0.0!
Control! Experimental! Control! Experimental!
Engineer! Non-Engineer! Engineer! Non-Engineer!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 19!

INSIGHTS FROM CNA EXPERIMENT!

•  Statistically significant increase in redesign (latent)

needs discovery with empathic experience
techniques!
–  2.5x versus typical interview(p-statistic < 1E-2)!
–  up to 20x versus verbal interviews w/o prototype (p-
statistic < 1E-4)!
•  Useful redesign (latent) needs uncovered!
–  Tied to nature of extraordinary experiences!
•  Inflatable, Tensegrity deployment (analogy to auto
sunshades), Glow-in-dark fabrics, Ergonomic zipper handles!
–  Non-obvious to customers in typical interviews!
–  Tied to enhanced usability in ordinary and
extraordinary conditions!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 20!
CAN EMPATHIC EXPERIENCES HELP 

DESIGNERS BECOME BETTER INNOVATORS?!

•  What? Use and manipulation of external conditions to simulate

challenging usage conditions!
•  When? Immediately before idea generation!
•  Why? Focuses designers on a productʼs interactions with user and
environment!

AGNES! UT Austin!
MIT Media Lab! NASA Senior!
nytimes.com! Design Project!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 21!
CAN EMPATHIC EXPERIENCES HELP DESIGNERS
BECOME BETTER INNOVATORS?!

1. Define 2. Define 3. Design

Begin with
Design Typical and Empathic
Prototype!
Problem! Lead Users! Experiences!

4. Implement
Empathic With Designers
Experiences! for Idea
Generation!

5. Perform Idea
Generation!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 22!

AN IDEA GENERATION EXPERIMENT!

Idea generation with and without preceding empathic

experiences!
Sensory 
 Physical 

! !
Problem statement!

Product interaction!

Empathic Experience!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 23!

CONCEPT GENERATION TECHNIQUE!
•  Idea Generation Technique is 6-3-5!
–  6 participants, each sketching 3 ideas, and then rotating them
clockwise 5 times for input from co-participants!
–  Primarily sketching, with limited words as labels. No talking!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 24!

METRICS!

•  Originality! Description

Common

Originality

0

–  Creativity, newness! Somewhat Interesting

Interesting

2.5

5

Very Interesting
7.5

•  Feasibility! Innovative
10

–  Quality, can this Is the design No

Sfeas=0
possible?
actually be made?! Yes

•  EED Categories! Is the design

technically difficult
Yes
Sfeas=4
for the context?
–  In which ways is the No
product innovative?! Is there an existing No
solution? Sfeas=7
–  How innovative?! Yes

Sfeas=10

Charyton, C., R. J. Jagacinski and J. A. Merrill, 2008, Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol. 2, pp. 147-154.!
Linsey, J. S., 2007, Ph.D. Dissertation, UT Austin.! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 25!
!
HYPOTHESIS!

Design engineers who engage in empathic

experiences immediately prior to a concept
generation activity will generate concepts with
higher levels of originality than those produced by
designers who do not engage in the empathic
experiences. Empathic experiences are also
hypothesized to have a measurable effect on the
type and focus of innovation characteristics
present in the resulting concepts .!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 26!

RESULTS!

Control  (without  empathic   Subject  (with  empathic  

experiences)
experiences)

Standard   Standard  
#
Mean
Error
#
Mean
Error
P-­‐Value

Originality
3.61
0.23
4.56
0.24
0.002

Sensory  &  
Feasibility
174
8.61
0.18
172
8.27
0.21
0.112

Environmental

#  ICM  Categories
1.46
0.08
1.75
0.08
0.006

Originality
3.87
0.16
5.22
0.19
0.000

Physical
Feasibility
128
8.55
0.17
101
8.39
0.21
0.295

#  ICM  Categories
1.72
0.10
2.33
0.10
0.000

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 27!

 ORIGINALITY SCORES!
Sensory/Environmental!
40%!
% of Designs Recieving Scores!

35%!
30%! 28%! 26%! 26%!26%!
24%!
25%! 22%!
20%! 17%!

15%! 13%!
10%!
10%! 6%!
5%!
0%!
0! 2.5! 5! 7.5! 10!
Maximum Originality Score!
Control! Subject! Physical!
60%! 58%!
% of Designs Recieving Scores!

48%!
50%!
40%!
40%!

30%!
22%!
20%! 15%!
8%!
10%! 3%! 2%! 1%! 3%!
0%!
0! 2.5! 5! 7.5! 10!
-10%!

Maximum Originality Score!

Control! Subject! Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 28!
INNOVATION METRICS!

Environmental   User  
 
FuncConality
Architecture
InteracCons
InteracCons
Cost

Sensory

Control
17.2%
27.0%
59.8%
40.8%
0%

Subject
16.3%
36.6%
63.4%
58.7%
0%

p-­‐value
0.396
0.030
0.268
0.000
N/A

Environmental   User  
 
FuncConality
Architecture
InteracCons
InteracCons
Cost

Physical

Control
10.9%
51.6%
39.1%
53.1%
0%

Subject
4.0%
73.3%
51.5%
84.2%
0%

p-­‐value
0.0195
0.0005
0.0361
0.0000
N/A

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 29!

 Sensory!
70.0%!
CATEGORIES OF
INNOVATION!
60.0%!

50.0%!

40.0%!

30.0%!

20.0%!

10.0%!

0.0%!
Functionality! Architecture! Environmental User Interactions!
Interactions!

Control! Subject!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 30!

 Physical!
90.0%!
CATEGORIES OF
INNOVATION! 80.0%!

70.0%!

60.0%!

50.0%!

40.0%!

30.0%!

20.0%!

10.0%!

0.0%!
Functionality! Architecture! Environmental User Interactions!
Interactions!

Control! Subject!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 31!

SAMPLE CONCEPT:
SENSORY
EXPERIENCE!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 32!

SAMPLE CONCEPT:
SENSORY
EXPERIENCE!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 33!

SAMPLE CONCEPT:
PHYSICAL
EXPERIENCE!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 34!

CLOSURE!

•  Characteristics of Innovative, Mechanical

Products!
–  Prevalence of product interactions!
–  Relative scarcity of new functionality!
•  Empathic Experience Design (EED) Method!
–  Remarkable increase in latent needs discovery
when applied to customers!
–  Significant increase in originality and ease of use
of concepts (with no decrease in feasibility) when
applied to designers!
Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 35!
MOVING FORWARD!

•  How well does EED work generally?!

–  Professional engineers versus novices!
–  Different engineering fields!
•  How does a customerʼs or designerʼs familiarity with a
product influence the effectiveness of EED? !
–  Original design versus redesign!
–  Unfamiliar contexts!
•  Can EED replace lead users? !
•  Does EED require physical simulations? Or could
mental exercises work as well? !
•  More generally, what is the role of priming in idea
generation? !

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 36!

CNA RESULTS!

Overall Results! Latent Needs by

6.00! discovery period!
6.00!
5.00!

5.00!
4.00!
4.00!
3.00!
3.00!

2.00!
2.00!

1.00!
1.00!

0.00!
Avg. # of categories in free Avg. # of Latent Customer 0.00!
speech! Needs! Control! Experimental!

Control! Experimental! Free Speech! Categorical!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 37!

 Results: Empathic Experiences
Increase Originality of Ideas w/o
•  Empathic experiences led to:!
Decreasing
–  Significant increase Feasibility!
in the originality of ideas!
–  NO significant change in the feasibility
(realizability) of ideas)!
–  Significant increase in innovative features
aimed at improving user interactions (and
changing product architectures to enable 

those improvements)!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 38!

Reference: Genco et al., 2011!
NEEDS GATHERING!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 39!

QFD!
Focus groups, benchmarking, the House of Quality!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 40!

Downhill Longboarders as Lead Users!
Extremely knowledgeable within their hobby.!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 41!

Patricia Moore (at age 26)!
Leader in universal design; posed as an 80 year old woman for
THREE YEARS.!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 42!

Bodystorming!
Act it out.!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 43!

IDEATION!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 44!

Brainstorming!
Ubiquitous, but often misunderstood.!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 45!

Design by Analogy!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 46!

EMPATHIC DESIGN!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 47!

 1. Define 2. Define
Begin with
Design Typical and
Prototype!
Problem! Lead Users!

3. Design 4. Implement
5. Generate
Empathic Empathic
Concepts!
Experiences! Experiences!

Select
Innovative
Concepts!

EED Methodology!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 48!

THE EED PROCESS!

•  Use and manipulation

of external conditions
to simulate lead user
activities and enable
innovations in product
designs and
redesigns!
•  Focuses designers on
a productʼs
interactions with user
and environment!

Empathic Experience Design (Seepersad) | 49!