Empathy to Elevate the User Experience

Harman developers are striving to create human-machine interfaces oriented more towards user needs.

In-car connectivity for today's cars and tomorrow's autonomous vehicles is moving product development norms beyond the traditional engineering approach. “Most products are designed from a straightforward engineering focus: It works like this. But with a user experience approach, it's about designing with empathy,” said Jason Johnson, director of user experience (UX) design at Harman.

Designing with empathy essentially means that product developers strive to make decisions that align with user needs and wants. “What matters are the answers to these questions: Are users accomplishing their tasks and goals? What are they going to tell their friends about the experience? And will that feedback be positive or negative?” Johnson said.