The Show Must Go On: Empathetic Research Practices during Covid
By: Hye Yoon
Tags: Covid 19 Crisis, Empathetic Design, Projects, Human Centered Design, UX Research

The second step of gaining empathetic insights of target users, is wearing others’ shoes, such as through bodystorming.

The term “bodystorming” was introduced in the early 90’s to identify what was working and what wasn’t at the early stage of the product development process. Bodystorming simulates the roles of users by testing out a product in a similar situation that your users may be in. While bodystorming seems similar to role play study which also requires you to play the role of target users in a simulated situation, low-fidelity mockups or props (products that you are targeted to design) are a key requirement in bodystorming.

✔︎ Why this matters

When researchers and designers encounter challenges doing mock-up testing during Covid, they can consider conducting bodystorming. This helps your team fuel empathy by letting you act, feel, and think like your users without meeting them in person. In addition, it helps the design team continue to gain insights on possible problems and issues that could occur from the designs.

✔︎ Tips for panning bodystorming during Covid🤞

Accounting for the data you gathered in the step of observing others’ shoes, you can facilitate this activity remotely with your team:

Plan guidelines that help your team have a clear idea on how to perform the activity in their own place:

Define roles of users based on your preliminary research data: Who are they? Are they elderly people? What kind of characteristics do they have?

based on your preliminary research data: Who are they? Are they elderly people? What kind of characteristics do they have? Set limitations to replicate the role: Do your users have specific physical limitations? How will you help bodystormers to act out the limitations?

Do your users have specific physical limitations? How will you help bodystormers to act out the limitations? Write scenarios for what to perform : What do they need to accomplish? And in which context would your target users use your product and services: (E.g. When this happens? Where are they at?)

for : What do they need to accomplish? And would your target users use your product and services: (E.g. When this happens? Where are they at?) Reflection guide template : What do you want to measure from the test?

: What do you want to measure from the test? Video recording guide: Ensure the right angles of video cameras to capture their acting of users’ roles

2. Perform bodystorming remotely: Set deadlines. Collect videos and reflection guides from bodystormers.

3. Mapping out the findings (e.g. empathy map): Gather your team to share their experiences of the users’ role and integrate the shared understanding via mapping tools such as empathy map.

✔︎ Examples — to act, feel, think like your users

The 55 Minutes team conducted a bodystorming to understand “how the elderly people who are limited in their movements would act, feel and think when they get dressed from their caregivers.”

Set limitations to replicate users’ roles: The knees of the bodystormer who act out the role of elderly care receivers, are wrapped by cardboards and tapes in order to simulate limitations caused by knee pains in the scenario of getting dressed/undressed.

Replicating Scene of Elderly Care-Receiver’s Knee Pains

Mapping out the findings: An empathy map is a great tool to synthesize bodystorming experiences by summarizing what bodystormers do, think, feel, see, hear, and say.

Example of Empathy Map, designed by event design collective. Source

Step 3: Walking together