Lesson video

Hello, there.

My name's Mrs. Taylor and thank you for joining me today.

Our lesson today is explore context and empathise, and this is part of the "Developments in new materials: Supporting new parents" unit.

I can explore contexts and empathise with users.

We have four keywords.

User, which is who you are designing for.

Needs, basic requirements that are essential for an individual's survival, health, and wellbeing.

Wants, desires or wishes for non-essential items or experiences.

And empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another person.

We have two learning cycles.

The first is explore contexts, and the second is user needs and wants.

We're going to begin with explore contexts.

All design and technological practise takes place within a context that informs outcomes.

A context is the situation within which something exists or happens.

It is the starting point for exploration, analysing, and then identifying a design opportunity.

We start with a context and then we explore.

The context in this unit is "Developments in new materials: Supporting new parents." When starting to investigate a context, it is vital to find ways to empathise with the users within the context.

Empathy is having the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another person.

Here we have a check for understanding.

Empathy is having the ability to understand and share? A, belongings with another person.

B, knowledge and skills with another person.

Or C, the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another person.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check.

That's right, it's C, the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another person.

Well done.

Often it is thought that exploring the context should happen quickly so that you can get to the most important phase of designing.

Designing is an important phase.

However, taking the time to really explore the context and understand the user's needs and wants will provide solid foundations for successful designing.

Showing empathy supports designing because it helps designers better understand what users really need, feel, and want.

With this understanding, they can create products or services that are more useful, easier to use, and more meaningful to the people who use them the most, the users.

Here we have a check for understanding.

There are four missing words from this sentence.

Read the sentence and fill in the missing words.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check.

Showing empathy supports designing because it helps designers better understand what users really need, feel, and want.

Well done.

The context in this unit is "Developments in new materials: Supporting new parents." Designing a product for new parents would be very challenging without showing empathy.

The next slides give a closer look at the lives of two different groups of new parents.

Each group has their own unique experiences and challenges, but they also share some common things.

It's important to understand both.

Here we have a picture of Sarah and Leo.

Sarah is a 29-year-old single mother living in a small flat with her newborn son, Leo.

She works part-time from home and has some support from her parents.

Balancing work, chores, and caring for Leo often leaves her feeling overwhelmed and isolated.

Her biggest daily challenges are night feeds, managing baby supplies, and finding time for rest.

Sarah relies on simple, efficient solutions that save time and reduce stress.

Here we can see a picture of James, Daniel, and Ava.

A married couple in their 30s and their baby Ava.

Living in an urban apartment, both juggling full-time jobs, while sharing parenting duties.

As first-time parents, they face challenges like sleepless nights, feeding schedules, and learning baby care while also navigating social stigma and a lack of tailored parenting resources for same-sex couples.

They value support networks and reflect on diverse family structures.

As a designer, to show empathy is having the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of a user.

A way of understanding and sharing the experiences of a user is to create a user journey map.

User journey mapping is breaking a task, service, system, or experience down into individual steps in the order they happen.

Think about the steps involved in experiencing a morning routine, from waking up to leaving home.

Some steps could include: the alarm goes off, get out of bed, use the bathroom, make breakfast, eat breakfast, wash, brush teeth, get dressed, put coat on, and leave the house.

Here we have a check for understanding.

User journey mapping is? A, visualising the user using the end product.

Or B, visualising the steps a user will take within a task.

Or C, visualising the user's needs and wants.

Or D, visualising the thinking of the user.

Pause the video and have a go.

Fantastic.

Let's check.

That's right, it's B, visualising the steps a user will take within a task.

Well done.

Presenting a user journey map could look like this.

The alarm goes off, get out of bed, use the bathroom, make breakfast, eat breakfast, wash, brush teeth, get dressed, put coat on, and leave the house.

To empathise further with one of the groups of new parents, a user journey map has been created showing the experiences in one day of their lives with their new baby.

Sarah and Leo's user journey map could look like this: feeding the baby, changing the baby's nappy, and changing the baby's clothes, followed by walking, entertaining, bathing, and soothing to sleep, dealing with illness, cleaning and laundry.

We now move to Task A.

Part one, select one of the groups of new parents and read about their situation and circumstances again.

Part two, to help you create a user journey map for the group of new parents you have selected, write down a list of the experiences that could take place in one day of their lives with their new baby.

And part three, create a user journey map for the group of new parents you have selected.

Identify and explain using words and images the experiences that could take place in one day of their lives with their new baby.

Pause the video and have a go.

Fantastic.

Let's have a look at some of the answers you may have come up with.

Your answers could be for part one, Sarah and Leo, and for part two, the experiences that could take place could be: feeding the baby both night and day, changing the baby's nappy, changing the baby's clothes, dropping off and collecting the baby to and from childcare, working at home, shopping, chores such as cleaning the bottles and the laundry, out walking with the baby in a pram or a carrier, entertaining the baby, some tummy time and playing, bathing and cleaning the baby, soothing and rocking to sleep, and illness, checking temperature and giving medicine.

And for part three, your user journey map for Sarah and Leo may look something similar to this: feeding the baby, changing the baby's nappy, changing the baby's clothes, followed by walking the baby, entertaining the baby, bathing the baby, followed by soothing the baby to sleep and perhaps dealing with the baby if they were ill, cleaning and laundry.

Well done.

We now move to the second part of the lesson, user needs and wants.

Using the user journey map, further exploration can be made, which can give insight into the user's needs and wants.

Often this exploration phase of the process is rushed and seen as not as important as the designing phase.

However, having a thorough understanding of the user's needs and wants can provide solid foundations for successful designing.

One way of identifying the needs and wants of the user is to take one or more steps of the user journey map and think about it in more detail.

This will help to identify the difficulties that the user could experience.

Looking at an individual experience of Sarah and Leo's day, what questions are raised? What are the needs and wants or priorities for Sarah and Leo in this experience? Here we have a check for understanding.

Having a thorough understanding of the user's needs and wants can provide solid foundations for successful? A, evaluation.

B, designing.

C, prototyping.

Or D, manufacture.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check.

That's right, it's B, designing.

Well done.

Izzy has chosen to explore the experience of Leo feeling unwell.

Here are some of the questions Izzy thought of.

What is different about Leo? What indicates an illness? How and why does Sarah think Leo is ill? What medicine can you give to babies? How do you give this medicine and how much? How is this affecting Sarah and Leo? Are existing medical products good enough? And what does Leo need to be comfortable? After considering the same experience for Sarah and Leo, Alex identifies what he thinks are the main needs and wants or priorities for Sarah and Leo.

Alex thinks the needs are safety, ability to make quick decisions, medical products to assist or track health, clarity, accurate information, and reassurance.

The wants are a calm and clean environment, rest and hydration, medical products that function well and are reliable, medical products that are easy to use, and peer support The user needs and wants identified within this experience can now be used to part inform designing a product for new parents.

This information will inform part of the design requirements.

The product must have high levels of safety.

The product must give accurate information.

The product must be hygienic.

The product must be easy to use.

The product must provide reassurance.

The product must not encourage high levels of stress.

Here we have a check for understanding.

There are two design requirements with missing words.

Read through them and fill in the missing words.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's check The product must have high levels of safety and the product must be easy to use.

Well done.

Task B.

Part one.

Using your list of experiences and/or user journey map created in task A, identify a specific experience that you will explore in further detail.

Part two.

For this experience, identify the user needs and wants within this experience.

You might use a table similar to the one we saw earlier.

Pause the video and have a go.

Wonderful.

Let's have a look at some of the answers you may have come up with.

For part one, you may have said, from my user journey map, I have chosen to explore the experience of when Leo is not feeling well.

And for part two, my user needs and wants for this specific experience for Sarah and Leo are: the needs are safety, ability to make quick decisions, medical products to assist or track health, clarity, accurate information, and reassurance.

And the wants: a calm and clean environment, rest and hydration, medical products that function well and are reliable, medical products that are easy to use, and peer support.

Well done.

We now have a summary of our learning today.

When starting to investigate a context, it is vital to find ways to empathise with the users within the context.

Empathy is having the ability to understand and share the feelings, thoughts, or experiences of another person.

Showing empathy supports designing because it helps designers better understand what users really need, feel, and want.

Completing a task like a user journey map can support showing empathy with users.

Exploring experiences of the users in depth can give designers insight into the needs and wants of users and support successful designing.

I'm really pleased you could join me for our lesson today.

Thank you and well done.