Back to the full dot-point answer
QLDDesignQuick questions
Unit 3: Designing with empathy
Quick questions on Empathy research methods in QCE Design Unit 3
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is interview - what people say?Show answer
Interviews gather attitudes, expectations, motivations and experiences directly. The skill is in the questions:
What is observation - what people do?Show answer
Observation means watching the person in their real context, doing the real task. It captures behaviour the person would never think to mention because it has become automatic - the workaround, the awkward grip, the step they skip. Observation reveals latent needs precisely because the person has normalised the frustration. The skill is to watch without interfering and to record what actually happens, not what you expected to happen.
What are triangulation - combining the methods?Show answer
The methods are most powerful together. Interview tells you what the person believes and wants; observation shows what they actually do; immersion gives you the felt sense of the difficulty. When the three disagree, the gap is the insight. If a user says a task is fine (interview) but you watch them struggle (observation) and feel why when you try it yourself (immersion), you have found a latent need with strong evidence behind it.
What is documenting empathy research for assessment?Show answer
Markers look for evidence that the research was real and was used:
Have a question we have not covered?
This dot-point answer is short enough that we have not extracted many short questions yet. Read the full dot-point answer or ask Mo, our study assistant, in the chat for follow ups.