Develop Empathy for Your Target Group
Hey folks! So I have taken up the “Become a UX Designer from Scratch” course from Interaction Design Foundation, and it’s pretty interesting and useful. The course’s challenges are that you should answer the questions after each lesson(either by choosing an answer or writing a short response).
The second challenge was this question below:
You have embarked on a design project to improve the recruitment process of a large agency. Please describe three ways you could collect data on the recruitment process to develop empathy for both the recruitment staff and candidates involved.
Make sure to explain how each of the three approaches will help you develop empathy.
My response to it was:
I’ll start this process by trying things myself: I’ll apply for a job in this agency, and write notes during the application process. It’ll show me how the process is carried out, and what gaps are there during it, which can be a pain for the potential candidates.
After it I’ll pass to the next stage — looking at what people do: I’d spend some time with recruitment staff, chatting with them about their job they carry out on day to day basis, watching how they conduct the recruitment procedure, what the difficulties are during that flow. My key concentration points will be:
- know about the requirement process,
- why it is pleasurable or vice versa,
- the last recruitment process carried out in detail,
- the best possible procedure,
- and the worst one.
I’ll document all significant details during the time with them to use later on(make notes, take photos, make videos, etc). This stage will help me have a better understanding of the process and know about the recruitment staff’s pains.
And last but not least: I’ll provide a cultural probes kit to potential candidates and ask them to carry out some tasks, and write them in the notebook. The tasks will be focused on:
- how the candidates pass the recruitment process,
- what obstacles they encounter during it,
- the best process they can imagine. I’ll design the cultural probes as engaging as possible and will make sure that they don’t require much time to carry out. This stage will help me have a more objective look at the process and understand the pains of potential candidates.
