Future of Design is Compassion

Concepts such as compassion and empathy, especially in the business and professional realm, are often associated with weakness. In our culture, kindness and compassion are commonly viewed as incompatible with and even detrimental to strong and effective leadership, an attitude that trickles down and defines the tone of businesses and organizations. If the idea of factoring in concepts like positive feelings and emotional well-being into product design and management decisions sounds contradictory, the results of this approach might surprise you.

Wharton professor Adam Grant has studied how traits such as compassion, kindness, altruism, and empathy affect leadership and professional performance for high achievers (a group he refers to as givers). Not surprisingly, possessing qualities that make people likable also helps make them influential. So how does this relate to design? It all comes down to influence and trust.

Compassion and Empathy Creates Trust

Good design takes the human’s needs and wants into account and creates an experience — whether digital or in the real world — that connects with their desires and helps them solve a problem. If that sounds like a no-brainer, think of all the products and services that seem to neglect the human’s needs to push an organization’s or even the designer’s personal agenda.

We don’t design products and services for ourselves. We design them for others. And how interactions and experiences make people feel determines how loyal they will ultimately be to a brand, product, or situation. Design that triggers positive emotions, such as making a person laugh instead of spreading fear, is more likely to bring trust. Human beings are wired to respond to stressful emotions and situations in scientific terms by going into fight or flight mode. Exploiting stressful situations and fear may capture some people’s attention at the moment, but it is less likely to engender trust and loyalty in the long term.

How to Design for Compassion

The first step, as always, is to know the audience. Compassion allows us to know what a person loves and fears and then create a helpful and consoling experience rather than exploitative. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of designing a compassionate experience, there are a few factors to keep in mind:

• Stress Reduction: Prioritize physical, psychological, and social well-being over negative emotions or possible stress triggers.
• Perceived Safety: Improve the user’s sense of emotional well-being and safety by designing an experience that enhances and prioritizes positive emotions.
• Reduce Danger: What world does the person live in and how can your design help him/her safely navigate it? For example, an app designed to donate money to a homeless person is useful, but taking it a step further to supply information that will help people get the services they need in their immediate vicinity — food, clothes, shelter, medical care, volunteer services — can help save lives.
• Enhance Dignity and Empowerment: This one is easy. Make people feel good about themselves.