Last Update:
Nov 12, 2026
UI/UX Design

UX Empathy Map: What It Is, How to Make One + Real Case Study Example

UX Empathy Map: What It Is, How to Make One + Real Case Study ExampleUX Empathy Map: What It Is, How to Make One + Real Case Study Example
Quick Summary
  • An empathy map helps you understand what consumers say, think, do and feel as they use your product.
  • The four basic quadrants convert qualitative user research to actionable UX insights.
  • UX empathy maps are constructed from user interviews, usability testing, observations, and other research data.
  • You can construct separate empathy maps for specific users or aggregate the insights into one map for a user segment.
  • Empathy maps are not the same as user personas or customer journey maps. They have a different function.

An empathy map is a visual tool to comprehend your users' thoughts, feelings, words and behaviors. In UX design, it translates user research into a common understanding of people’s experience when using your product.

An empathy map can help you find out what frustrates your consumers, what drives them, what they anticipate from you and what of their requirements are not being satisfied, instead of assuming what they want.

Whether you are establishing a SaaS platform, creating a minimum viable product (MVP), or upgrading an existing mobile app, an empathy map lets you make better design decisions.

In this article, you’ll learn about the four quadrants and how to develop a UX empathy map step-by-step. You’ll also get a free template, a practical case study example, and insights on how to use AI technologies efficiently. 

What Is an Empathy Map in UX Design?

A UX empathy map is a visual tool that helps design teams understand users by organizing research into categories such as what users say, think, do, and feel. 

It helps designers, developers, and product managers identify users’ needs, emotions, pain points, and motivations to create more user-centered products and experiences.

The method is attributed to Dave Gray and XPLANE whose approach to empathy mapping was popularized through the Gamestorming toolbox.

According to the Nielsen Norman Group’s introduction to empathy mapping, teams use empathy maps to make sense of qualitative research, communicate user insights, and uncover gaps in their understanding.

A standard empathy map contains four quadrants surrounding a central user:

  • Says What the user says out loud.
  • Thinks: What the user thinks, considers or worries about.
  • Does: What the user actually does.
  • Feels: Emotions that the user feels.

Say, for example, you’re creating a subscription management dashboard. A consumer might comment “I can’t tell which plan I’m paying for” and open billing pages over and over again to locate the answer.

The empathy map links what the customer says, what they do, and what frustrates them. Then your team can analyze whether the problem is caused by imprecise plan labels, confused navigation, or missing billing information.  

An empathy map doesn't tell you what to design automatically. It helps you understand the problem well enough to choose and test an appropriate solution.

What Are the 4 Quadrants of an Empathy Map?

The 4 quadrants of a UX empathy map are Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels. Each quadrant captures a different aspect of the user experience, helping design teams understand what users express, what they believe, how they behave, and what emotions they experience. Together, these insights reveal users’ underlying needs, motivations, and pain points.

Here’s what each quadrant signifies and how to apply it in UX design.

1. Says: What Does the User Say?

The Says quadrant contains the exact words of the user, ideally real quotes from interviews, usability testing, customer support encounters, or other research.

These words are how people convey their needs, their problems and their wishes.

During your SaaS onboarding flow a user can say:

  • "I don't know what to choose.Why do you want my credit card already?
  •  I thought I was finished setting up my account.
  • “Can I get out of this and do it later?

Write these sentences down as close as you can. Do not reword a user’s comments in an effort to justify your design approach.

For example, “The onboarding process is confusing” is not as helpful as a precise comment about the stage that confused the user.

Use of this quadrant: Find redundant questions, unfulfilled expectations, imprecise guidance and where users have trouble grasping your interface.

2. Thinks: What Is Going Through the User's Mind?

The Thinks quadrant captures what users may be considering, questioning, or worrying about during an experience.

Some thoughts appear directly in interviews. Others are hypotheses that your team needs to validate through further research.

For example, a person launching a new project management tool would think:

  • "“Will my team be able to easily use this?
  • Am I selecting the proper settings?" 
  • "Will I lose any data from my previous projects?
  • "Now do I really have to invite everyone?"

Such thoughts may indicate concerns that impact the decisions of a user, even if they are not spoken.

But don't take as truth an idea that hasn't been said." If your research does not determine what the user was thinking, designate the entry as a hypothesis.

How to use this quadrant: Uncertainties, trust issues, decision blocks and queries your interface should address more explicitly.

3. Does: What Does the User Actually Do?

The Does quadrant captures activities that are observable, not views or assumptions.

Watch users use your product . What do they click on, skip over, come back to and how do they get around obstacles.

For example, a user navigating an online checkout might:

  • Return to the cart to check the total price.
  • Open the shipping information several times.
  • Try clicking a disabled payment button.
  • Abandon the checkout before confirming the order.

These acts provide clues to the experience, but do not in and of themselves explain why it occurs. A user could leave checkout due to an unclear delivery fee, a technical issue or a change of heart.

Use behavioral observations, user interviews and usability testing to find the cause.

How to use this quadrant: Look for stages that are not needed, activities that are repeated, workarounds, navigation issues, and places where users have trouble finishing tasks. 

4. Feels: How Does the User Feel?

The Feels quadrant is about the way you feel about a task or experience.

Tie the emotion to the situation that sparked the feeling, rather than using a broad phrase such as “frustrated.”

For example:

  • Confused: The user cannot tell the difference between two subscription plans.
  • Does the payment go through? Anxious User is not sure.
  • Clutter It's messy with unknown metrics on the dashboard
  • Confident: The user is clearly told that a task has been finished.
  • Impatience: The user waits a few times for a slow site to load.
  • Emotions tell you why a given experience is important to the user.

How to use this quadrant: Identify events that create doubt, anxiety, confidence, satisfaction, dissatisfaction. Then make design changes to mitigate the root cause. 

How Do the 4 Quadrants Work Together?

The 4 quadrants work together by connecting what users say, think, do, and feel to create a complete picture of their experience. Comparing these insights helps UX teams identify gaps between users’ words, actions, and emotions, uncover hidden needs, and make better design decisions.

Consider a customer struggling to complete an online purchase. Here is an example below:

Quadrant Example finding
Says "I can't tell whether delivery is included."
Thinks "There might be another charge after I pay."
Does He returned to the cart to see what the sum was.
Feels Feels Unsure of ultimate cost.

Taken together, these results suggest that the checkout experience may not be communicating the total amount effectively.

Your team may aim to surface shipping charges, taxes and the total amount to pay earlier in the flow. Then you’d undertake some usability testing to determine if the modification helps clients check out more confidently. 

This is how a UX empathy map connects user research with practical design decisions.

Free UX Empathy Map Template

You don't need specialized software to create an empathy map. You can start with a whiteboard or a spreadsheet, a presentation, or a design tool your team already utilizes.

Use evidence from your own user research to replace the example prompts given below:

Copy-and-Use Empathy Map Template

  • User or segment: [Identify the user or section of users]
  • Product or task: [What experience are you studying?]
  • Research sources: [Interviews, usability testing, support tickets, observations, etc.]
  • Research date: [Insert date]
SAYS THINKS
What did the user say? What does the user believe or worry about?
Add direct quotes. Separate evidence from assumptions.
DOES FEELS
What actions did the user take? What emotions did the user express or demonstrate?
Record observable behavior. Connect each emotion to its context.

problems: What are the issues, frustrations, risks or fears that affect the experience?

Gains: What does the user wish to achieve or improve?

Key insight : What is the key insight that emerges from the research?

Design opportunity: What could the team change or test in response?

Evidence gaps: What questions still need answers?

You can copy this structure into your preferred workspace and fill it out with your team.

For a visual version, start with the original empathy map resources from XPLANE or explore the empathy mapping poster from Nielsen Norman Group.

What Are Pains and Gains in an Empathy Map?

Some empathy map formats, including the expanded Dave Gray and XPLANE canvas, include explicit Pains and Gains sections.

These sections assist teams link what they discover about users to the problems they need to solve and the solutions users seek.

Pains are obstacles that keep users from accomplishing their goals. Examples are confused navigation, unexpected charges, repetitious data entering, and confusion whether an action was successful.

Gains are the rewards users want. This could be faster task completion, fewer errors, more confidence or a better picture of their work.

For instance, a founder using a SaaS analytics dashboard may not be able to obtain significant data for performance. They want a simplified picture of the numbers that are most important to their business.

Ground Pains and Gains in Research. Your team should not be listing features your team will build. Your team should be focused on what users experience or want. 

How to Make a UX Empathy Map Step by Step

Creating a UX empathy map involves a few simple steps, from gathering user research to organizing insights into the four quadrants. 

However, the effectiveness of the map depends on the quality of the research, the accuracy of the observations, and how well the team interprets the findings to understand users’ needs and behaviors.

Here’s how to translate user evidence into useful insights for your product team.

Step 1: Define the User and Research Objective

Start by determining whose experience you want to learn about, and why. Don't make a generic empathy map for every prospective customer. varied users will have varied goals, experience, limits and expectations.

For example a project management platform could target founders, project managers and individual contributors. Each group may interpret the same interface in various ways.

Choose one user or a clearly defined segment, then identify the task or problem you're investigating.

Ask yourself:

  • Who are we trying to understand?
  • Which product or experience are we examining?
  • What decision will this map help us make?
  • What do we know? What don't we know?

Having a defined aim will help your research stay on track and will prevent your map from becoming a tangle of unrelated observations.

Step 2: Collect Qualitative User Research

Once you have your scope set, acquire proof from people that are representative of your target users.

Useful sources are

  • User interviews to uncover goals, expectations and complaints.
  • Usability testing that shows where individuals have trouble with an interface.
  • Customer support tickets with persistent issues.
  • Sessions with real observation of behavior.
  • User happiness as described in free text responses to surveys.
  • Diary studies of people’s use of a product over time.

The IDEO design thinking method starts with observation, interviewing and immersion in real circumstances before defining problems or generating solutions.

If you have a SaaS solution, you could interview customers just after they finish onboarding and watch a few customers set up their accounts.

Ask open ended questions like, “What did you expect to happen here?” or “Can you walk me through what you were trying to do?”

The first thought that sprang to my mind was the query, "Who is this?

If you want to be more formal, check out Orbix Studio’s guidance on usability testing for SaaS products.

Step 3: Organize Findings Into the Four Quadrants

Review research notes, interview transcripts, and usability observations. Identify individual findings and place each one in the appropriate quadrant.

For example:

“The user had to open three separate pages to find an invoice.”

When a user navigates between multiple pages to complete a task, document this behavior under Does.

If the user clearly states that they are anxious about a missing invoice, record that under Feels. If you think that the user may suspect the billing system but you have no direct evidence, mark that interpretation as a hypothesis.

Keep each finding brief enough to be readily scanned. Right now your goal is to capture the evidence accurately, not to decide what design modifications to make. 

Step 4: Cluster Similar Findings and Identify Patterns

After you have your team’s findings on the map, cluster comparable observations.

This is known as affinity clustering . It lets you see common themes across multiple research outcomes.

Some users could, for example:

  • Ask where to find the billing history.
  • Go back to the billing page and check the payment.
  • Report doubt as to whether an invoice has been generated.
  • Make a payment, then contact support.

These observations may lead to a larger problem: users do not get clear indication about billing status.

Don’t assume all observations have the same cause. Investigate opposing findings and review the supporting research, then merge them.

The Nielsen Norman Group’s introduction to UX mapping methodologies demonstrates how various mapping strategies can help teams synthesis information and comprehend user experiences. 

Step 5: Identify Pains, Gains, and Unmet Needs

Once you have identified the essential patterns, prioritize the user concerns that you will be tackling.

Ask them what gets in the way of people finishing what matters, what takes away their confidence, and what results matter most.

A continuous trouble with billing status might lead to needless help calls and misunderstanding for consumers regarding payments.

You might decide to show a clear payment status, a visible link to the invoice and a descriptive confirmation message.

Don’t just go right into a feature. First, find out what the user’s basic need is.

For example:

“Customers need to be able to confirm that their payment was successful and access their invoices without having to contact customer support.

This is more effective than simply saying, ‘Add a billing dashboard.’ It gives the team the flexibility to explore different solutions and determine the best way to meet users’ needs.”

Step 6: Turn Insights Into Design Decisions

The end result of an empathy map should be a subject for study or an experiment.

Verify your findings and prioritize the issues that have the biggest impact on user goals. Think about how often the problem occurs , how much it affects your life , and whether your solution is addressing the most probable cause .

Then you can make a design hypothesis based on a finding.

A: Great! Yeah, I can do that.

Research Insight: The total price is not shown right away thus buyers go back to the basket numerous times.

Design Hypothesis: Display total order amount earlier so that consumers have a better idea of cost before proceeding.

Run the new checkout procedure by a couple sample consumers and see whether they can get the final pricing without help.

Before you spend development cash on complex product modifications, prototype it.

Use the Orbix Studio Figma mobile app design guide to explore and share possible UI designs with your team. 

Step 7: Validate and Update the Map

Your empathy map is a working research artifact, not a final portrayal of your people.

Test your recommended improvements. Collect new input. Update the map as new evidence alters your understanding.

If the research yields a new user segment, make a distinct map instead of pushing different experiences into the same summary.

Also note where you got your research, and when. This allows your team to judge how dependable and how timely each finding is.

The goal is to maintain a meaningful image of consumers when their demands, behaviors and product experiences change. 

UX Empathy Map Example: A Food Delivery App Case Study

A real life scenario helps us see how empathy mapping fits into a product design cycle.

Think about a food delivery app where people can look for restaurants, compare food, order and see where the delivery is. The Product Team wants to know why certain consumers are having trouble completing their orders.

The following case study is an example based on a fictional food delivery app and is not indicative of actual outcomes measured from a customer project. It demonstrates how a UX team might utilize an empathy map to explore a checkout problem. 

Step 1: Define the Research Problem

“We want to understand why customers pause at checkout, and what would help them place orders with more confidence,” the team said.

The team watches users go through the ordering process, and does follow-up interviews instead of presuming the checkout needs fewer screens.

Step 2: Create the Empathy Map

The team makes the following hypothetical results:

Quadrant Research finding
Says "Why did the delivery fee change?"
Thinks "Will I be charged more than the amount shown?"
Does Returns to the restaurant page, checks the cart, and reviews the total repeatedly.
Feels Not sure as the ultimate cost is not evident immediately.

The team also identifies possible pains and gains.

Pains

  • Delivery charges are opaque until too late.
  • It is tough to find out the final payment amount.
  • Customers can’t tell if they’re getting a discount or not.

Gains

  • A detailed price breakdown before you pay.
  • Easy to grasp discount information.
  • Confidence that the amount they see is the amount they pay.

These results imply that price transparency is more important than the number of checkout screens.

Step 3: Identify the Design Opportunity

The team says the key user need is:

Customers want to know the cost of their order before paying.

Designers may consider following enhancements by this necessity:

  • Display shipping costs earlier in checkout.
  • View discounts, taxes and the whole price together.
  • Show the price breakdown upon checkout.
  • Make payment. Confirm clearly.

The team shouldn’t anticipate these tweaks to immediately enhance conversion. It needs to pilot a prototype with a representative set of clients, and determine if they find it easier to understand the full cost.

Step 4: Test the Proposed Improvement

The team prototypes a new checkout. Participants are instructed to order .

In testing, researchers examine whether participants can figure out the bottom line pricing, rationalize the shipping charge, and complete the transaction without added ambiguity.

They then take those data and compare them to the original study to evaluate if the improvements cure the problem.

It can then improve the interface according to the outcome. 

What Does This Empathy Map Teach Us?

The example shows why empathy mapping is useful before redesigning an interface. It helps UX designers understand users’ needs, frustrations, expectations, and behaviors. 

By identifying pain points and connecting them to real user insights, designers can make informed decisions and create a more intuitive, user-friendly experience.

If they don't undertake research, workers could make checkout easier by reducing down on processes. An empathy map can help you understand the basis of the problem: customers do not fully understand what they pay for.

The map helps the team focus on the actual problem of the user, not the first assumption about the solution.

Another example of product design work is Orbix Studio’s case study of Gourmeat food app. You can also have a look at the Wink shopping website case study to view another e-commerce design setting. These are examples of portfolios and not evidence of the hypothetical results mentioned. 

Individual vs. Aggregated UX Empathy Maps

An empathy map doesn’t always require the same amount of study. Some record the experience of one person, while others summarize patterns across many users. Your choice of approach will rely on your study aims and on how much evidence you have gathered. 

A clear distinction between these two types of UX empathy maps is given below:

Factor Individual empathy map Aggregated empathy map
Focus One research participant A certain set of users
Evidence the interview of one person or witnessed conduct Patterns of participation, numerous
Main purpose Get to know a person’s experience in depth Identify common demands and repeating trends
Best used when Viewing a certain task or strange conduct Synthesis of research before product decisions
Main limitation May not represent other users Can mask key differences between users

When Should You Create an Individual Empathy Map?

If you want to gain a sense of what it was like to be a particular participant, make a separate map.

For example, a researcher might follow the journey a new user takes through a complex analytics dashboard. This might reveal you where that person hesitates, what they expect and how they respond to new things.

Individual maps might be useful for exploring different levels of experience, accessibility demands or individual user situations.

But don’t take one person’s experience and extrapolate it to your entire consumer group. 

When Should You Create an Aggregated Empathy Map?

Look at a couple of persons with a relevant goal or circumstance. Pool and plot the results.

For example, you may discover that many new clients are having problems setting up their SaaS accounts. Your team may take the same data and put it into a map that shows first time users.

Start with research at the level of participants or with single maps. And then cluster the repeated observations into themes.

Keep the differences that are relevant, do not try to fit all data into one pattern. You may need to create separate maps for experienced and inexperienced users if they use the maps in different ways.

Empathy Map vs. User Persona vs. Customer Journey Map

These three UX tools help companies understand users, but they answer different queries.

An empathy map looks at how a user thinks. A persona is a synthesis of a typical user profile, whereas a customer journey map is a description of how an experience unfolds in time.

Tool Main question What it captures When to use it
Empathy map What does the user say, think, do, and feel? Attitudes, behaviors, emotions, and needs Understanding a user's perspective
User persona Who is this user, and what are their goals? Relevant characteristics, context, goals, and behaviors Aligning the team around a user type
Customer journey map What happens throughout the user's experience? Stages, touchpoints, actions, and pain points over time Identifying problems across an end-to-end experience

How Does an Empathy Map Differ From a User Persona?

A user persona is a description of a typical user type, their goals, context, needs and related behaviors.

An empathy map is a way to arrange everything you know about that person into four perspectives: Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels.

A persona, for example, might be a startup founder who has little time to watch business performance. The empathy map can show that the founder can’t make sense of the complicated numbers on the dashboard, and is afraid of missing critical developments. 

You can use empathy maps to inform personal development, but the two tools are not interchangeable.

Empathy Map vs. Customer Journey Map: Which Comes First?

When a team needs to go inside a user’s head, an empathy map is generally the first thing that comes before a customer journey map.

But the right order depends on what you are doing research for. You can either do one map first, then come back to them together, or update both as you obtain more information.

For example, an empathy map can suggest that clients feel confused at checkout. Then a customer journey map can help highlight when that confusion starts, what touchpoints are involved and where the experience falls apart.

Utilize the empathy map to get into the user’s shoes, and the journey map to see how that experience evolves over time.

Why Use an Empathy Map in UX Design?

Empathy maps help UX teams make better design decisions by organizing user research into a clear, accessible format. They help designers understand users’ needs, expectations, emotions, and pain points, making it easier to identify usability issues and create user-centered experiences.

Some of the major benefits are:

Build a Shared Understanding Across Teams

Designers, engineers, founders and product managers can all see the same user input differently.

An empathy map creates a common point of reference. Everyone can see the evidence, discuss the patterns that keep emerging and agree on what problems need to be solved.

This is especially helpful for startups when team members routinely make product decisions across several responsibilities.

Identify Problems Behind User Behavior

Once a task is completed, a user might visit a pricing page again, fill out a form, or reach out to help.

The behavior doesn't explain why it happens, either.

Your team can connect the dots between what you see people doing and what they say and how they feel, find potential causes and determine where to go next.

Prioritize User Needs Before Building Features

Without a clear picture of user demands, teams can waste time designing solutions that don’t address the core problem. An empathy map allows you to describe the need underneath before you choose a solution.

For example, people struggling with a dashboard probably don’t need extra charts. They might need clearer labels, better defaults, or a more helpful overview of key information.

Some of the factors to keep in mind are:

Find Gaps in Your Research

An incomplete empathy map tells you where your team doesn’t have proof.

If you have a lot of data on what individuals do but not so much about why they do it, you may need to do some follow-up interviews.

If your map makes assumptions about emotions and motivations, you can generate research questions to investigate them.

The U.S. General Services Administration contains user research tips that will help you prepare for user interviews and hear directly from those who utilize your services.

Support Better Product Decisions

Empathy maps can help you make decisions about onboarding, navigation, checkout, dashboard and other UX improvements.

They are especially helpful in the early stages of the design process, when the team is defining the problem and discussing alternative solutions.

But an empathy map is not proof that a design change will work. You still need to test your ideas and examine the outcome.

Common UX Empathy Mapping Mistakes to Avoid

A well-made empathy map clarifies user research. A poorly made one can reinforce assumptions and send the team in the wrong direction.

Avoid these common mistakes:

Treating Assumptions as Research Findings

Your team might assume that customers feel overwhelmed by a dashboard. Of course, this is a supposition unless consumers have said they feel that way or the study confirms the view.

Clearly label assumptions and describe how you will validate them.

Creating a Map Without Talking to Users

You can brainstorm internally to help your team come up with questions, but it’s no substitute for user research.

Whenever possible, base the map on real-life experiences gathered through interviews, usability testing, observations, and feedback from customers.

Mixing Different User Segments

New users, seasoned consumers and administrators may have quite varied needs.

Putting them together on one map can obscure key differences. Create different maps if the data demonstrates large differences across user groups.

Writing Vague Statements

Entries like “users want a better experience” don’t give us enough information to make design judgments.

“Describe the task, problem or situation.

For example, “Users can’t tell whether their subscription changes take effect immediately” indicates a specific problem the team may explore.

Focusing on Emotions Without Context

Writing frustrated or bewildered doesn’t describe what made it happen.

Associate every feeling with an imagined experience, a direct assertion or a well-marked hypothesis.

Treating the Map as a Final Deliverable

“Just because the team has done an empathy map doesn’t mean it’s worth anything.

Use findings to clarify challenges, prioritize opportunities, build prototypes and plan future research. Change the map when new evidence alters your understanding.

AI Empathy Map Generator Workflow

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help you organize your study notes and help you build a first empathy map. They also assist teams to search for themes across interviews and support tickets.

But AI-generated insights are only as good as the information and instructions they rest upon. Use AI to help with analysis, not to manufacture consumers’ thoughts or attitudes.

You can use AI for the following:

Step 1: Prepare Your Research Data

Collect interview transcripts, usability testing notes, survey responses and other essential qualitative data.

The problem is that the government is not going to start harming itself. Before you submit research to an AI provider, ensure you comply with your organization’s privacy and data-handling policies.

Step 2: Ask AI to Classify the Evidence

Tell the tool to bucket the findings into Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels.

Do not change straight quotations. Leave observation apart from interpretation. Lack of evidence #2

For example, look at this prompt:

"Build a UX empathy map using the study notes below. Says, Thinks, Does and Feels – Organizing findings. Do not change straight quotations. Separate observable behavior from presumed reasons Suggest unverified interpretations. Identify common user pain areas and open research questions. Do not assume.

Paste your approved research notes below this instruction.

Step 3: Review and Validate the Output

The resulting map can be compared to the original study.

“I hate being alone,” she remarked. “I don’t like being alone.”

If the tool detects a recurring pattern, make sure the findings from the sources really do support that theme.

Step 4: Turn the Findings Into Design Opportunities

Let AI formulate design hypotheses based on validated results.

For example, if a consumer cannot find their billing information, the tool could provide better navigation or a shorter billing summary.

But think of these as fuel for thought, not proven solutions.

Step 5: Test the Proposed Improvements

Prototype, usability test and if possible observe user behavior before and after changes.

The goal isn’t to make a pretty AI-generated map, but to iterate on the product based on what real clients want, proven in the real world.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective UX Empathy Map

Here are some approaches to consider that may help to keep your map functioning during the design phase:

  • I want to humanize the following text: Identify the user, task and choice you are studying.
  • Proof from real consumers. 5. Interview, observation, usability testing and other related study results.
  • They were much spoken about. • Use bullet points that your colleagues can rapidly skim.
  • Dr Williams added: “It is a huge privilege to be involved in this. I am really glad to be able to work with the community and the scientists. Do not rephrase the user's statements to match your desired answer.
  • Distinguish fact from supposition. Show the doubt, don't proclaim things as truth.
  • Check for inconsistencies. A user says a process is easy, yet keeps committing errors. Don’t forget the gap. Look at it.
  • Affinity clustering Group similar discoveries together to detect common patterns.
  • “Fix the big problems. Take into account the frequency of a difficulty, its importance and the level of success the user can accomplish in reaching his or her goal.
  • Connect knowledge to action. Translate research findings into questions, hypotheses, designs or experiments.
  • Reload map. Revisit it again when new research or major product changes change your mind.

In empathy mapping, these approaches keep product teams tied to real design work, not a paperwork exercise. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an empathy map in UX design?

Empathy map is a visual framework that maps what your team understands about a user in 4 quadrants. Thinks, Feels, Says and Does. It helps UX teams to consolidate qualitative data, understand user needs and make informed design decisions.

How do you create a UX empathy map?

1. Define target user and aim of study. 2. Gather some qualitative information. 3. Categorize your findings in the four quadrants. Group recurring themes, identify pains and gains, turn insights into design hypotheses and test to validate projected changes.

What are the four quadrants of an empathy map?

And the four quadrants are Says, Thinks, Does and Feels . Direct speech Records say Thoughts / notes / worries Shows observed behavior Sentiments concerning the occurrence are the feelings

What is the difference between an empathy map and a user persona?

A user persona is a summary of a typical user, containing their key goals, context and habits. An empathy map is a way to capture all the team knows about that person in four viewpoints. Empathy maps are inputs for the development of personas, but they are not a substitute for personas.

Empathy map vs. customer journey map: which comes first?

An empathy map is often the initial phase of the team’s requirement to grasp the user’s perspective, before mapping the full experience. The trip map helps to discover pain areas at different stages and touchpoints. Depending on research objectives it is possible to develop both at the same time.

Why should UX teams use empathy maps?

UX teams use empathy maps to understand people, align stakeholders, find research gaps and prioritize what matters. They prevent a team from making product decisions based solely on assumptions.

Can AI generate an empathy map?

Yes. AI is able to take interview notes and other qualitative findings and make a first empathy map. But before you make design decisions based on the output, you need to validate quotes, evaluate interpretations, protect users’ privacy, and discern evidence from assumptions.

Final Thoughts

If you’re building a SaaS product, launching an MVP, or refining an existing digital experience, an empathy map can help hold your team’s focus on what consumers really need.

We help startups and rising businesses at Orbix Studio integrate product needs and user expectations into tangible digital experiences. Check out our SaaS design and usability tools to see how research and intentional design may help you make better product decisions.

Orbix Studio
Shohanur Rahman
Founder & CEO
As the Founder and CEO of Orbix Studio, Shohanur Rahman brings over ten years of experience in UI/UX and product strategy. He is adept at aiding SaaS and AI startups in their growth journeys. His articles provide practical guidance for both founders and product designers.