Muga: Experiencing without Self

Empathy is a crucial component of human-centered design. However, achieving deep empathy can be challenging when designers approach subjects as separate from themselves. In traditional product design, the designer encounters the subject through the lens of a designer. This can often lead to solutions influenced by personal or company bias along with preconceived notions about the customer’s experience.

In my personal experience developing an array of innovative healthcare products, the separation between designer and patient often results in reactive or “paternalistic design” whereby despite the best of intentions, products fail to achieve the desired impact. This lack of deep empathy in product design has led to what is commonly known as the dreaded “solution in search of a problem.”

So, how can we incorporate deep empathy into product design to increase its impact potential?

Often when we try to bring empathy into product design, our sense of self can hinder our ability to connect with others. Instead of asking “How would I feel if I were in the situation of another?”, we should strive to ‘walk in the shoes of another’ and truly embody their experience.

This seemingly subtle difference can be quite profound and serves as the first foundational principle of Bearing Witness Design, that of “Not knowing”. This principle, adapted from the Japanese Zen concept of “muga” (無我), or no self, entails a facilitated process of letting go of one’s sense of self to allow for the full experience of another's. 

Bearing Witness Design is a human-centered design methodology that in practice facilitates muga to inform product design from deep empathy.