October 19, 2024
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2 min
😷 Doctor: “I need to maintain professional distance, otherwise emotion can cloud my medical judgment.”
🤓 Designer: “I put myself in my user’s shoes to understand where they struggle.”
Both are right, and that’s exactly the problem. Doctors are trained to maintain emotional distance in order to make sound medical decisions. Too much empathy can lead to exhaustion or poor choices. Designers, on the other hand, need to fully immerse themselves in their users’ world to understand where they struggle.
But what happens when a doctor has to use a dashboard designed without understanding the pressure they’re under? Or when a designer empathizes so deeply with patients that they forget to account for the cold reality of medical protocols?
The art lies in finding the balance: empathy to understand, objectivity to decide.
That’s why we always involve both doctors and patients in our design process and make sure they truly listen to each other.
🟢 TodayTomorrow creates human-centered technology for the healthcare of tomorrow. In the Designers & Doctors series, we share fascinating insights into our collaboration with healthcare professionals.