When I first heard of Indi Young’ Practical empathy, I thought the book aims at non-UX folks, because we’re all — you know — naturally empathetic. Boy oh boy, was I wrong about that. The more I read the book, the more I learnt that (some of) what I've been doing was only scratching the surface of empathy.
Whinging about UX failures is our favourite past-time. We shame the offenders. We point out the sneaky dark patterns that trick users into doing things they didn't feel like doing in the first place. Leaving specific examples aside, let’s talk about what fundamentally constitute a pear shape experience, and some sensible words on how to avoid them.
This week, as an exercise, I looked at allryder, an urban mobility app, with fresh, critical eyes. Wearing the two hats of UX designer, and commuter, I also did a quick redesign of the app and thought of new possibilities.
