In the design world, the word ‘empathy’ is tossed around quite a lot - meaning the ability to understand another person’s feelings or experiences. To be a good designer you must be able to empathize with your users, team members, and clients. But what happens when empathy isn’t enough? It’s important to be able to understand someone else and put yourself in their shoes, but as designers, we must strive to do more.

Usability testing is a process where a designer seeks to validate their prototype. By speaking with real potential users, a designer can validate whether key pain points discovered during their research stage are being addressed, understand how users interact with the app to identify areas of improvement, find data points to support design decisions, and ultimately improve the user experience. But what happens when you get so much feedback that it’s hard to know what to use and what may not be as relevant?