Empathetic User Assistance

Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | Web Design & CSS, Writing Theory & Practice

When reviewing screen text with an interaction designer, I suggested he drop the word “please” from some text phrased something like, “To do such-and-such, please do this and that.” I said that it’s instructional text, so we’re just telling the user how to do something, not really requesting that they do it.

He told me the reason he did that was to help create what is called an “empathetic interface.” We ended up agreeing on more concise wording than the original, and we left out “please.”

What Empathy Means

I thought about what an empathetic interface would be, especially where it concerns tech comm, and I looked up the word to remind myself of what it means. Empathy is defined on Dictionary.com as “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.”

So an empathetic interface is more than a polite or friendly one. I have been using a particular site that, after I sign in, has a greeting in the header with my name and “good morning” or “good afternoon,” and so on, depending on the time of day. WordPress itself says, “Howdy, Ben” when I sign in. I thought at first that perhaps this was an empathetic interface, but based on the definition above, I think it’s merely polite.

From the definition, I expect that it’s part of a technical communicator’s job to create empathetic interfaces and content. It’s our responsibility to understand the user’s position, thoughts, feelings, and so on so that we can provide the right assistance.

How Does the Concept of Empathetic Interfaces Apply to Me?

What constitutes empathetic user assistance? It’s what we’re trying to arrive at through all our online discussions and big technical communication conferences. I’d like to have a magic answer, a key to unlock the door.

To be empathetic ourselves, it comes to knowing the users’ circumstances. If we document for a user group that we belong to, then we by definition identify with and understand the group. But if we are outside the user group, we ought to do what it takes to intellectually identify and experience what the users do.

But we and our user assistance are not the same. Obviously, a quick reference guide or online help system can’t literally understand a user and experience what the user experiences. And it would seem unprofessional and downright weird for a troubleshooting guide to say, “I understand this problem may be frustrating you. Here’s what you can do to fix it—fast.” You’d be laughed out of the technical publications department if you wrote that way. Not only does it ring a little hollow, but the user would have to wonder who understands.

Some user assistance interfaces try to introduce some character to make it more friendly. Think the dog or wizard in the Windows search tool or a person with speech bubbles. I’m not excited about trying those. We had a concept in our team early on, being the User Education team, of thinking of “User Ed” when we write, but that didn’t last long.

A Couple of Ideas for Empathetic User Assistance

Perhaps scenario-based training and documentation comes close to being empathetic. If it replicates real situations, then it acknowledges what the user experiences and needs.

Another thing I’ve started trying is using questions as headings to draw users to the right piece of information, such as a sidebar I did on some release notes that said, “What Version of IE Am I Using?” Phrasing headings like this draws the user in because it’s basically asking the question for the user. If the user has that exact question (or a similar one), she knows she can find the answer in the following text. I hadn’t thought of this tactic as empathizing with the user before, but I think it fits. (Did you notice that I used this practice with the second heading in this post?)

These are just a couple of ideas for making documentation and training “empathetic.” I think taking our content in that direction will enhance it. If you have ways you make your content empathetic, please share them.

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