[Sigia-l] Empathy - Morville's take

[Berry, Nicholas F]

Interesting, I was just reading Peter Morville's book "Ambient
Findability" and ran across this in chapter 1, page 6:

"....inspiration in understanding that the work we do to connect people
with content and services and one another truly makes a difference.
Designers, developers, writers, and others who labor behind the screens
to shape the user experience rarely get to see the personal impact of
their work. We maintain <italics>empathy for the user</italics> as a
matter of faith."  (Italics are Morville's)

Context: he was talking about how some users can get hope, inspiration,
and support from the web when searching for info on a loved one's
medical problem.  He goes on to say that "messages from and contact with
our users help us to renew that faith."  

I think it's fair to say that he sees IA as an art, in some ways.  Isn't
that what the empathy thing is about, anyway?  We can't quantify it or
analyze it, so it tends to be dismissed as a factor.  So back to the
original issue, which was "are IAs empathetic" - what matters is that
the ones who are can be more successful because they include a piece
that is integral to the whole experience.

Nick