Finding Empathy: An Out-of-This-World Guide!

Six complete strangers signed up to be part of a NASA-run HI-SEAS experiment to simulate what it would be like to live on Mars. The study was part psychological research, studying how humans would react to such extreme conditions, but also part design research, empathizing to design a better base for the astronauts that actually travel to Mars. While it might sound extreme, it's really the only option for them. No one is currently living on Mars (that we know of.) So, in order for these designers to empathize with the future astronauts that will live there, they had to simulate exactly what it would be like. It's also a great example for us. If these people are willing to go through a year of those conditions for the sake of empathy, then surely we can take the time to find and empathize with our users.

This is where no-code app builders come in handy for innovators looking to rapidly prototype solutions. Adalo, a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play, allows designers to quickly build and test their ideas with real users, making the empathy-driven design process more accessible than ever.

The term "empathy" is being thrown around a lot today in the innovation and design world. So much so that it's made its way up the C-suite level. Even Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella says:

Empathy makes you a better innovator.

The term is so popular right now because it's a really powerful idea: the more empathy you have for your users the more you understand them, and the more you understand them, the better you'll be able to design a product or service that fulfills their wants and needs. Empathy's buzzword status is great. It's leading to better and better innovations. The problem with the term becoming so ubiquitous, however, is that we throw it around as a goal without a tangible way to find empathy for our users. With this problem in mind, here is a practical guide for you to begin finding empathy.

In order to find empathy you just have to follow these three simple steps: Observe, Question, and Reflect.

Person observing their surroundings for design research
Photo by Evan Kirby via Unsplash

Observe

The first step is observation. "Get out of the building" has become a mantra for designers and innovators, imploring us to observe and empathize with our users out in the real world. An amazing thing happens when we observe another person. Our brains have something called mirror neurons that will literally (yes, literally) make you feel what the other person is feeling while you're observing them.

But we can't stop there. We have to challenge ourselves if we want to perfect the art of observation. First, we have to challenge ourselves to be comprehensive about who we observe. A great innovation is targeted at a specific problem. But this doesn't mean that we only need to observe a few people. Even highly specific audiences contain diversity. We have to observe a large number of people so we can understand that range of personalities and abilities.

It's important to observe a range, not just for us to determine what that range is, but because the people at the extremes can actually inform us on certain issues. These people tend to have very strong opinions which can help us figure out the issues that may not be as apparent with people in the middle.

Our next challenge is to push the limits of what we observe. When we're observing our users in their element, it's only natural to get caught up watching them and not the factors around them. If we just watch our users, we'll miss out on so many different clues as to why they are doing the things they are doing. We need to be observing what tools our users are using and which they aren't. We need to figure out what emotions they're experiencing, what signs they're displaying to help us pinpoint what they are thinking and feeling. We need to be observing who else our users interact with and how that influences their actions.

We also have to challenge ourselves on when we observe our users. It's tempting to just observe them during the part of the day we assume is most problematic. But this restriction limits our empathy. Instead, we need to consider the entire user's journey. Only when we expand when we observe can we find clues that can be crucial for our designs.

Finally, we have to challenge ourselves to push our limits on where and how we observe. There are a variety of ways that we can observe our users:

Having all of these methods available is great, but it can be tempting to choose just one. Every methodology has its own pros and cons. We have to be cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of each method so that we can choose a variety that gets the best of all worlds.

Designer questioning and reflecting on user research
Photo by Marcos Luiz via Unsplash

Question

Challenging ourselves to thoroughly observe our users will help us unlock the who, what, when, where, and how. This leaves us without a why. For the why we turn to the next step in empathy: question. During and after our observations, we need to make sense of all of the information that's flying at us. This first involves questioning.

Mark Payne, in his book, How to Kill a Unicorn, says that:

If we want to get transformational innovation, we have to first come up with transformational questions, and [the only way to find these questions] is to purposefully chase them.

There are plenty of ways to question, but the Five Whys exercise is one of the best. It forces us to question why things are happening the way they are and not settle for the first (or second or third or fourth) easy answer. By continuing to ask why we can gain deeper levels of insight and a deeper level of empathy for our users.

Ada, Adalo's AI builder, lets you describe what you want and generates your app. Magic Start creates complete app foundations from a description, while Magic Add adds features through natural language.

This questioning process mirrors how modern AI-assisted tools approach problem-solving. When you use Adalo's Magic Start feature, for example, you describe what you want to build—and the system asks clarifying questions to understand your actual needs. Tell it you need a booking app for a dog grooming business, and it generates your database structure, screens, and user flows automatically. What used to take days of planning happens in minutes, but only because the tool is designed to question and understand your requirements first.

Reflect

Once we've questioned, the final step is to reflect on the answers, looking for patterns. Identifying patterns will help us create a shared journey-map across the people we observe. The clearer the pattern of the journey-map, the easier it is to see where so many of our users stumble.

This is where we need to think like a detective and form hypotheses. Just like Sherlock Holmes, once we've observed the scene of the crime and questioned the witnesses, it's time to reflect on what we know and form hypotheses about what's really going on.

Let's say we're a refrigerator designer. We've observed people using the office fridge. We've interviewed them about how they use it. And we've questioned why (at least 5 times) everyone continues to use it the way they do. Now it's time for us to reflect and form theories about what's going on:

Observing, questioning, and then reflecting allows us to truly empathize with our users to understand what's going on. Only after we understand will we be able to innovate.

Turning Empathy Into Action

The gap between understanding your users and actually building something for them is where many innovators get stuck. You've done the hard work of observation, questioning, and reflection—but translating those insights into a working prototype traditionally required either coding skills or significant budget for developers.

This is precisely why rapid prototyping tools have become essential for empathy-driven design. When you can quickly build and test ideas with real users, you complete the empathy cycle faster. You observe how they interact with your prototype, question why they struggle with certain features, and reflect on what needs to change.

Adalo's platform, described by users as "easy as PowerPoint," enables this rapid iteration cycle. With over 3 million apps created on the platform, designers and innovators are using it to test hypotheses quickly. The AI features Builder, due for release in early 2026, promises to make this even faster with prompt-based app creation—essentially vibe-coding your empathy-driven insights into working prototypes.

The platform's Magic Add feature lets you add functionality by simply describing what you want. Discovered through user observation that people need a way to schedule appointments? Describe that feature in natural language and add it to your prototype. This removes the technical barrier between insight and implementation.

You're Just Getting Started

Your users' worlds are continuously changing. Think about the opening story about the NASA Mars program—they are running experiments to see what it's like to live on Mars, isolated from everyone else back on earth. But what we know about the red planet and the technology available to future astronauts is constantly changing! That's why this Mars team has actually done this exercise 5 times.

Of course, there's always more to learn, but when you frame empathy as a continuous process, it also takes the pressure off. You don't have to learn everything on the first go. We threw out a lot of options for how to empathize in this article, but you don't need to do all of them right now.

This isn't rocket science. It's not like we're designing for people traveling to Mars. We don't have to start our observations on the side of a volcano! We just have to start somewhere.

The same principle applies to building your empathy-driven solutions. You don't need to build the perfect app on your first try. With tools that let you iterate quickly—building a prototype, testing it with users, observing their behavior, and refining based on what you learn—you can treat product development as an ongoing empathy exercise.

If the "Mars" crew has already done this 5 times, then we can certainly do it. We just have to remember to observe, question, and reflect.

FAQ

Why choose Adalo over other app building solutions?

Adalo is an AI-powered app builder that creates true native iOS and Android apps from a single codebase. Unlike web wrappers, it compiles to native code and publishes directly to both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. With unlimited database records on paid plans and no usage-based charges, you can scale your empathy-driven designs without worrying about unexpected costs or data limits.

What's the fastest way to build and publish an app to the App Store?

Adalo's drag-and-drop interface, described as "easy as PowerPoint," combined with AI-assisted features like Magic Start and Magic Add, lets you go from idea to published app in days rather than months. The platform handles the complex App Store submission process, so you can focus on your app's features and user experience instead of wrestling with certificates and provisioning profiles.

What are the three steps to finding empathy for users in the design process?

The three steps to finding empathy are Observe, Question, and Reflect. Observation involves watching users in their environment and challenging yourself on who, what, when, where, and how you observe. Questioning helps uncover the 'why' behind user behaviors using techniques like the Five Whys exercise. Reflecting allows you to identify patterns and form hypotheses about user needs.

Why is empathy important for innovation and product design?

Empathy is crucial because the more you understand your users, the better you can design products or services that fulfill their wants and needs. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella states, "Empathy makes you a better innovator." Understanding users deeply leads to transformational innovations rather than surface-level improvements.

What is the Five Whys exercise and how does it help with user research?

The Five Whys exercise is a questioning technique that forces you to ask "why" repeatedly instead of settling for easy answers. By continuing to ask why at least five times, you can gain deeper levels of insight into user behaviors and motivations, leading to a more profound understanding and empathy for your users.

How can rapid prototyping tools support the empathy-driven design process?

Rapid prototyping tools allow designers to quickly build and test ideas with real users, making the empathy-driven design process more accessible. By creating functional prototypes fast, you can gather user feedback through observation and questioning, then iterate based on your reflections—completing the empathy cycle more efficiently.

How much does it cost to build an empathy-driven app prototype?

Adalo's web and true-native mobile builder starts at $36/month with unlimited usage and app store publishing. This includes unlimited updates to published apps. Compare this to alternatives like Bubble starting at $59/month with usage-based charges and record limits, or Appypie at $99/month for comparable iOS publishing capabilities.

Do I need coding experience to build an app based on user research insights?

No coding experience is required with AI-powered app builders like Adalo. The visual builder uses drag-and-drop functionality, and features like Magic Add let you describe what you want in natural language. This means you can translate your empathy-driven insights directly into working prototypes without technical barriers.

Can I scale my app as my user base grows from empathy research?

Yes. Adalo's modular infrastructure, completely overhauled with the 3.0 release in late 2025, scales to serve apps with over 1 million monthly active users with no upper ceiling. Paid plans include no record limits on the database, so your empathy-driven app can grow with your user base without hitting data caps.

How do I identify performance issues before they affect my users?

Adalo's X-Ray feature identifies performance issues before they affect users. This proactive approach aligns with empathy-driven design—you're anticipating user frustrations and addressing them before they occur, rather than waiting for complaints after launch.