Rethinking Empathy: What Works, What Doesn’t in UX
JUNE 6th 9:00AM PDT; 12:00AM EDT; 5:00 PM BST (UK); 18:00 CET; 22:30 PM IST
60 minutes
Open Circle: FREE (Join to Access)
Inner Circle: FREE
Rethinking Empathy Masterclass: What Works, What Doesn’t in UX
“Empathy” has long been a staple of UX thinking. Design Thinking promoted it as a key tool. It’s portrayed as the gateway to understanding users and making better design decisions. But in recent years, it’s become a controversial topic — overused, misapplied, and rejected by many in the UX field.
In this masterclass, we’ll unpack the empathy backlash in UX. We’ll explore why it happened, what it reveals about our tools and assumptions, and how we can move toward a more grounded practice of care, accountability, and shared responsibility in design. Frank Spillers will take you through a tour of the science of empathy and show you how it works and how to use it better, based on his practical experiences and exploration of empathy over 25 years in the field.
Topics covered in this Rethinking Empathy Masterclass:
- What’s all the fuss about? The roots of empathy backlash in UX
- How empathy works: the brain-based mechanism and how it gets distorted
- What empathy can and can’t do for UX Design
- Identify practical approaches beyond Design Thinking empathy
About Monthly MasterClasses:
These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s two decades in the field.
Why Join?
The UX Inner Circle is a professional learning community with a program of monthly events for UX researchers and designers, managers, and directors practicing UX and Service Design. We are a small group of 50+ UX and Service Designers, Directors, and Researchers currently 100% working in UX. Attendees come from orgs like Harvard, Google, IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Capital One, US Bank, healthcare, government, and non-profits. So why join?
- Refine or expand your current skills– push the boundaries of your learning.
- Get advice and guidance: Put a top-performing UX expert (Frank Spillers, CEO of award-winning UX firm Experience Dynamics and top instructor at Interaction Design Foundation) in your pocket. Stay connected with the latest on what Frank is thinking and prioritizing in UX and Service Design.
- Ask anything to other UXIC colleagues on a dedicated private Slack channel. Also, collaborate during monthly meet-ups (Masterclasses).
- Get a promotion at work or upgrade your skills, portfolio, or process knowledge. This is the #1 reason folks keep subscribing to the UX Inner Circle.
Get this event FREE:
- Join FREE, or Paid- access starting at $99 USD/ mo.
- Membership includes access to ALL monthly event recordings and more (going back 25 years of Frank’s UX career). 200+ recordings. Monthly live meet-ups (Masterclass topics) and workshops (every other month). Miniclasses (short webinars) and more…
Financial inclusiveness membership: USD$49 per month for Nonprofit-Student- or you live in the Global South/ Emerging Market (.org; .edu)
Regular membership: USD$99 Individual per month
20% discount on Annual Price; switch anytime, cancel anytime.
| Date: | 06 Jun 2025 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 09:00 am PST 12:00 pm EST 05:00 pm GMT 06:00 pm CET |
| Check Your Timezone | |
