Empathy Map
An empathy map is a collaborative visual canvas that captures what a team knows about a particular user or user segment, organized around what that person says, thinks, does, and feels. Originally developed by Dave Gray at the consultancy XPLANE, it turns raw research notes into a shared picture of a user's mindset and exposes gaps in the team's understanding.
How an Empathy Map Works
The classic version places the user in the center and divides the space around them into four quadrants:
- Says: direct quotes from research, ideally specific rather than generic.
- Thinks: what occupies the user's mind, including thoughts they might not say out loud.
- Does: observable actions and behaviors.
- Feels: emotions, described with context, such as "anxious about choosing the wrong plan."
In 2017 Dave Gray published an updated canvas, developed with input from Alex Osterwalder. It moves "think and feel," along with the user's pains and gains, inside the person's head. The change separates what can be observed, such as what people say, do, and hear, from thoughts and feelings that can only be inferred.
A team usually fills in the map during a short workshop, using notes from customer interviews, observation, and other research. Contradictions between quadrants are often the most useful findings, such as a user who says they plan carefully but whose actions show last-minute decisions.
Why an Empathy Map Matters
Research findings are often scattered across documents and people's heads. An empathy map puts the most important ones in one place the whole team can see. Nielsen Norman Group lists its benefits as aligning the team on a shared understanding of users, revealing knowledge gaps, reducing bias, and helping teams see what drives behavior.
It is also a quick check on evidence. Empty or vague quadrants show where the team needs more research. Statements that no research supports show where assumptions are hiding.
Empathy maps are a common tool in design thinking workshops and are often a stepping stone toward fuller personas, although they do not replace them.
Empathy Map Example
A team designing a budgeting app builds an empathy map for recent graduates, using notes from a round of interviews:
- Says: "I check my bank balance before I buy anything big."
- Thinks: wonders whether they are saving enough compared with friends.
- Does: starts a spreadsheet budget but stops updating it after a few weeks.
- Feels: guilty about spending and overwhelmed by detailed budgets.
The contrast between careful balance-checking and an abandoned spreadsheet suggests that detailed category tracking is the wrong approach for this group. The team explores quick weekly check-ins instead.
Empathy Map vs. Journey Map
An empathy map captures a user's mindset as a whole, without any time order. A journey map follows the user step by step through a process over time. Teams often use an empathy map first to understand the person, then a journey map to understand the experience.