Transcriber: Akinori Oyama Reviewer: Daniela Versace
Hi. I am Kate Canales.
I teach design, innovation in an engineering school.
But, actually, I wanna start out my talking to you about dentistry.
I had a recent insight about dentistry that's related to my talk.
Which is that my dentist started offering evening and weekend appointments.
I thought this is kind of interesting
because evening and weekend appointments are a lot more convenient for me.
I would imagine they are a lot more convenient for a lot of his patients.
And this is a win-win
because if I can get to the dentist more easily, theoretically more regularly,
this is a win for my oral health and this is also win for his business.
So, stay with me here. Sometimes, an innovation is technical.
So, in the dentistry example, you could imagine a new tool or a new chemical substance
that allows us to prevent tooth decay better.
This would be a technical innovation in dentistry.
And, sometimes an innovation is commercial.
So, a dentist who, say, takes annual fee sees you for whatever you need to be seen for.
You cut insurance out of that deal for a year.
That might be a commercial innovation in dentistry.
And, sometimes, innovation is human.
Sometimes, the only thing that changes about an offering is the way people experience it.
So, do I think my dentist has been innovative offering these new evening and weekend hours? I do.
I think that what he did is he thought about what would matter to his patients.
and what would be convenient for his patients.
and he tweaked his offering. He innovated on his offering.
Based on his understanding of our circumstances and our feelings.
This is not a big deal in this particular case.
But, this is what we call empathy.
And, empathy, what I'm here to talk about today is
that I think empathy is the unsung key to innovation.
As I said, I teach design in an engineering school.
My area of expertise is actually in what the industry calls human-centered design,
or said maybe in another way empathy in design, applied empathy.
I have a belief that being innovative and being empathic are very closely linked.
I didn't know always know this – I started my career as product designer.
My first real job was at a group
that was designing toys and other products for children.
I got really interested in ergonomics,
in whether or not our designs could be used by smaller hands that have more limited dexterity.
This led really naturally to spending time with children watching them play.
This led very naturally to a more interesting question,
which is "did they think our designs were fun?"
So, a toy can be perfectly engineered.
It can be very cleverly conceived for manufacturing.
It can use state-of-art materials, can be ergonomically optimized.
In other words, it can be technically perfect.
But, if a kid does not think it's fun to play with it,
then, it is nothing but technically perfect piece of junk.
This was a really important insight for me as a designer,
it changed the way I think about design.
At the same in my career, I had a privilege of learning from a man named Bill Moggridge,
who is now famous for saying "design verbs, not nouns."
So, in this case, he might have said "design play, not toys."
Here is another example.
This is not a suitcase.
Suitcase is a noun. This is schlepping.
(Laughter)
And, the experience of schlepping the suitcase on right is
a far better human experience than schlepping the suitcase on the left.
In fact, the difference between the suitcase on the right and the suitcase on the left
represents the single biggest innovation in schlepping of all time.
(Laughter)
It is a human innovation.
It is an innovation based in empathy.
It is an innovation based on an understanding
for what a pain in the behind it is to carry a bunch of stuff from point A to point B.
Now, finding empathy for the user of a product like this is not hard.
This is something we all kind of resonate with.
And, yet, we didn't have this innovation on the right until 1987.
This is the example that I like to cite
when people say kind of wacky things like there are no new ideas.
Really? Because 1987, how long were we schlepping before 1987?
Then, we finally had this idea.
So, there are a lot of new ideas. There are a lot of new ideas.
And, empathy is one way to find them.
So, here is a new idea that has me a little bit puzzled
from the point of view of the human experience, from the point of view of empathy.
The Segway. Now, the Segway is technically very impressive.
It is technically innovative.
I do not mean to diminish that innovation and that technology.
But, what is the verb here?
The Segway people promised us that the verb would be commuting.
And, this would revolutionize commuting.
But, how does that work?
So, do I commute with this on the street?
No. This doesn't go that fast. That would be very dangerous.
Ok. So, can I commute on a sidewalk as I mow down the pedestrians?
It's not very popular, It's not very well received.
Can I commute with this in conjunction with my other commuting systems?
Can I put in my car? Can I easily get it on to the bus?
So, what I am trying to say is
I really don't know the story of the development of the Segway very well.
But, what I'm trying to say is that I suspect
that a real passion for human empathy and user experience was
probably not a big factor in the development of the Segway.
and, I think, I'm not trying to be flip here.
I really do think you could argue that is reflected in its commercial performance.
Maybe. So, here is another example that takes place in Nairobi, Kenya.
I had a great conversation
with an anthropology professor recently, Caroline Brettel.
When I was trying to describe to her what I do,
this was her immediate, first story and it's so perfect.
A group of American architects was working in Nairobi with the government,
the Kenyan government, to build public housing.
A big block of public housing, hundreds of apartments.
In what I am sure was very well intended effort to save time and money,
the American architects decided they would adapt some plans
they had just recently used for very similar project in Philadelphia.
Those of you who watch home and garden television – and there is nothing wrong with that –
(Laughter)
Those who watch home and garden television
are aware of the American's desire for an open plan kitchen.
We love a space where you can eat
and cook and socialize, and watch the ball game, all in one big space.
Not so in Nairobi.
Evidently, for many Kenyans, food preparation is very private affair.
it's considered almost unclean.
You would never want to serve your guests
in the same space where you would prepare the food.
In other words, you would never want an open plan kitchen.
Which is too bad because that was what Philadelphia plan's called for.
And it is exactly what got built.
It was more than just a faux pas.
It was more than just cultural faux pas.
Although I think that the point of the story, it was also very expensive mistake,
because the government ended up having to go back in,
after all the families had moved into these units,
and build a wall between the kitchen and the rest of the home.
This tiny little bit of empathy,
little bit of research into the humans in that system could have prevented that.
There is no shortage of stories about bad user experiences,
about circumstances where the humans in the situations were not accounted for well enough.
But I wanna make sure that I am making the right point here
because as much as I love to complain about a bad user experience,
a good user experience is not our entitlement as users.
Rather, it is the opportunity.
The opportunity is to understand users, find empathy for the users.
and design an experience that delights them,
or design an experience that really answers the need that you find when you find that empathy.
So, empathy can make you a more innovative designer.
It can make you a more innovative engineer.
It can also make you a more innovative waitress.
It can make you a more innovative teacher. It can make you a more innovative student.
It can make you a more innovative parent.
You get the idea.
Empathy is good for anybody who is interfacing with other humans.
I think this is an important key.
Unfortunately for me, in my role at the school of engineering,
empathy sounds a little "touchy-feely",
We don't tend to use the phrase "touchy-feely" in a positive sense in our culture.
(Laughter)
In fact, we often put feeling and thinking as opposites on a spectrum,
as in thinking versus feeling in the Myers Briggs.
But, as Dan Pink puts it, feeling is a way of thinking.
I would go take that further to say that it is especially a way of thinking
when feeling, or in this case empathy,
is what allows you to rethink the problem that you are solving.
This is what I came to SMU to teach, one of the things I came to SMU to teach.
to engineers, no less.
I am gonna have to take a look at this for a second.
OK. We'll edit that, right, Sharon?
(Laughter)
So, this is what I came to SMU to teach. One of the things I came SMU to teach.
The thing that I am really trying to do here is to say
that to think about certain types of problems, you really have to feel them.
To do that, we are going to have to go out into the world.
The great benefit, the great side effect of going out into the world is that
it allows you, almost forces you to call into question,
the assumptions that you are making about people in the system.
It forces you to see that Americans and Kenyans feel differently about food preparation
before you build something.
I think this is the important point
because when we question those assumptions we see the problem differently.
And when we see the problem differently, we see different solutions.
A lot people would call that innovation.
I wanna make one final point that is much more personal in nature.
But that has been a really important factor, a really important personal factor in doing this work,
An important side effect is it's affected me very profoundly.
In years of doing this kind of work, I have done observations and interviews
with hundreds of people, hundreds of strangers.
And I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to understand their needs,
to really interpret their needs.
I've come to really believe in the adage that everybody has a story.
That every single one of us is doing the very best we can
with the equipment that we have in the circumstances we are in.
This is an empathy that is really easy to forgot day to day.
I consider it the greatest personal gift of my work
that each time I do a new study, it is a reminder that
every single person that I encounter is fighting something hard,
something difficult all the time every day, usually very privately.
This is an unbelievable, a profound effect on the way I take on the world.
Because when you can see that in everyone, you really can rethink the whole world.
So, empathy is a noun. The verb is understanding.
Thank you.
(Applause)