Emoji Sculpture — 20 minute hands-on empathy game for designers.
Design and empathy have become good friends thanks to design thinking methodologies, now spanning the globe. Having a ‘step’ in the design process entitled empathy is great, but how do we actually tap into this human superpower? Seriously, I’m asking. How do YOU? With emojis, tinfoil, and sticky notes of course!
Below are details to a 20 minute warm up game that can help you and your team feel more prepared to identify, express, and leverage emotions in a design project. I have found this particular exercise especially impactful when played right before we make plans for user research in design thinking projects to remind everyone of the challenges / value with communicating and understanding emotions. The intent is to bring awareness to what empathy is and the role of emotions in cultivating it. So, naturally the exercise starts with emotions. Below is a quick overview of the exercise, followed by detailed steps and resource images. Enjoy!
STEP 1 - Pick Emoji (2 minutes)
Secretly have each person pick an emoji (facial expression or hand gesture). Print out the emoji sheet below and cut into pieces. Let people blindly pick out their emoji out of a hat / bowl. Remind them to keep it hidden.
STEP 2 - Emoji into Emotion Words (3 min)
Take a look at this wheel of emotions. Circle 2–3 emotions from the wheel that best fit the emoji you selected. Starting from the middle and working your way to the outside edge of the wheel can help. Pick at least 1 of your emotion words from the outer ring.(image source: Robert Plutchik)
STEP 3 - Sculpt the Emotion (5 minutes)
Narrow your focus to just one of the emotions words selected, whichever one best suites the emoji. Create an abstract sculpture representing the emotion you chose. There are many possible mediums to use for your sculpture. Here are my favorites; aluminum foil, letter sized paper, PlayDoh, or LEGO bricks work great.
STEP 4 - Gallery Critic (5 minutes)
Have each person display the sculpture on the table out in front of them. Everybody stand up and walk around to view each sculpture. As you study each sculpture, write on a sticky note what emotion you think the sculpture best depicts. Place the sticky note near the sculpture. If you are in a large group it can help to limit the amount of sculpture each person provides feedback on… 3–5 is plenty.
STEP 5 - Reflect & Discuss (5 minutes)
Lead a group discussion about how this went. Here are some suggested discussion prompts:
- Did anyone have someone guess something close to what your emotional intent was? If not, what did people guess? Why did they guess that? What did you intend?
- How does this relate to the idea of empathy? What role do emotions play in empathy? How do we ‘read’ others emotions? Are we always right?
- What are some ways we can try to understand how others are feeling?
- What can we do to try to make sure we are not misreading the emotional situation?
That’s it! If you play it, I would love to hear how it goes for you. I am also curious, what are other ways you bring emotion into your design process? What impact has it had on project outcomes?