Communication Design Quarterly Mar 2017 Open Access

Empathetic user design: understanding and living the reality of an audience

Emily January Petersen Utah State University

Abstract

Motherhood is often a source of guilt, conflict, and ambivalence, and any communication about motherhood must be governed by an ethic of care and principles that take into account the fraught nature of such an identity. Social media provide individuals with new ways to discuss aspects of and share information about motherhood in different communication settings. Within this context, this article presents the results of 18 qualitative interviews of "mommy bloggers" and reports on the communication design principles and techniques these individuals employ to reach audiences of women. It also takes into account the contexts of users through social media. Overall, these bloggers use communication strategies such as identification, a rejection of perfectionism, an ethic of care, stories and narratives, branding, interactions with users, and a conversational tone to reach the target audience of women. These women act as professional communicators online by understanding this audience, living the reality of this audience through their own experiences, and designing communication that appeals to and ultimately improves the lives of their users. A study of their communication patterns can provide communication designers with insights on what I call empathetic user design and the importance of lived experience as authority.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2017-03-22
DOI
10.1145/3068698.3068701
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
modern rhetorical theory social media
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Friess et al. (2021)
    “Dude, that Sucks”: Examining Scrum’s Influence on Empathy in Student Teams
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Bakke (2019)
    Writing for Patients on the Participatory Web: Heuristics for Purpose-Driven Personas
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  3. Cagle et al. (2019)
    Shades of denialism: discovering possibilities for a more nuanced deliberation …
    Communication Design Quarterly
  4. Petersen (2019)
    The “Reasonably Bright Girls”: Accessing Agency in the Technical Communication …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Petersen et al. (2018)
    Bridging Analysis and Action: How Feminist Scholarship Can Inform the Social Ju…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

References (43) · 10 in this index

  1. 10.1145/1456536.1456560
     ↗
  2. 10.2190/6WMW-47L0-M81Q-12G1
     ↗
  3. 10.1080/15710880412331289917
     ↗
  4. Belkin L. (2011). Queen of the mommy bloggers. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/…
  5. Bevan N. (2009)
    Proceedings of the Workshop UXEM (Vol. 9).
Show all 43 →
  1. BLYLER (1995)
    Pedagogy and Social Action: A Role for Narrative in Professional Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Bowdon (2014)
    Tweeting an Ethos: Emergency Messaging, Social Media, and Teaching Technical Co…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x
     ↗
  4. Brown I. (2010)
    A. O'Reilly (Ed.), Twenty-First-Century Motherhood: Experience, Identity, Policy
  5. Burke K. (1966). Language as symbolic action: Essays on life literature and method. Berkeley CA: University o…
     ↗
  6. Collamer N. (2015 August 11). How to make money as a blogger. Forbes.com. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.co…
  7. 10.1006/jevp.1999.0152
     ↗
  8. Douglas S. J. & Michaels M. (2005). The mommy myth: The idealization of motherhood and how it has undermined …
  9. Forbes C. (1999). Getting the story telling the story: The science of narrative the narrative of science. In …
  10. Friedman M. (2013). Mommyblogs and the changing face of motherhood. Toronto Canada: University of Toronto Pre…
     ↗
  11. 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb01373.x
     ↗
  12. 10.1207/S15327590IJHC143&4_13
     ↗
  13. Hurley et al. (2014)
    The Rhetoric of Reach: Preparing Students for Technical Communication in the Ag…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  14. 10.1145/2379057.2379104
     ↗
  15. Hea (2014)
    Social Media in Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  16. Longo (2014)
    Using Social Media for Collective Knowledge-Making: Technical Communication Bet…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  17. 10.1177/1461444809105349
     ↗
  18. 10.1080/1369118X.2010.542822
     ↗
  19. Morrison A. (2010)
    Autobiography in real time: A genre analysis of personal mommy blogging. Cyberpsychology
    Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace
  20. Neeley (1992)
    Woman as mediatrix: women as writers on science and technology in the eighteent…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  21. Noddings N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Berkley CA: University of Ca…
  22. Okker P. (1995). Our sister editors: Sarah J. Hale and the tradition of nineteenth-century American women edi…
  23. 10.1177/0162243903259190
     ↗
  24. Perkins J. M. & Blyler N. R. (1999). Narrative and professional communication (No. 10). Westport CT: Greenwoo…
  25. Petersen (2014)
    Redefining the Workplace: The Professionalization of Motherhood through Blogging
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  26. Petersen E. J. (2015)
    Mommy bloggers as rebels and community builders: A generic description
    Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement
  27. Potts L. (2013). Social media in disaster response: How experience architects can build for participation. Ne…
  28. Powell R. (2010)
    Good mothers, bad mothers and mommy bloggers: Rhetorical resistance and fluid subjectivities
    MP: An Online Feminist Journal
  29. Rich A. C. (1986). Of woman born: Motherhood as experience and institution. New York NY: W. W. Norton & Co. (…
  30. St.Amant K. (2015). Reconsidering social media for global contexts. Intercom 15--17. St.Amant K. (2015). Rec…
  31. Salvo (2001)
    Ethics of Engagement: User-Centered Design and Rhetorical Methodology
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  32. Singleton M. & Meloncon L. (2011 June). A social media primer for technical communicators. Intercom 6--9. Si…
  33. Spinuzzi C. (2005)
    The methodology of participatory design
    Technical Communication
  34. Tebeaux E. (1999). The emergence of women technical writers in the 17th century: Changing voices within a cha…
  35. Tebeaux et al. (1992)
    Images of women in technical books from the English Renaissance
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  36. Thieme (2010)
    Constitutive Rhetoric as an Aspect of Audience Design: The Public Texts of Cana…
    Written Communication
  37. Tong R. (2009). Feminist thought. Boulder CO: Westview. Tong R. (2009). Feminist thought. Boulder CO: Westview.
  38. 10.1086/494360
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 8 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Jan 2026
    LinkedIn in Business and Technical Communication: A Textbook Analysis Grounded in Digital Literacy ↗
    Sarah Moore; Kathryn Lookadoo
    modern rhetorical theory teacher development technical communication digital rhetoric social media literacy studies
  2. Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2025
    Introduction: On the Desirability of Speaking to Others ↗
    Nirvana Tanoukhi; Nicholas Dunn
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument social media race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric literary studies editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  4. Philosophy & Rhetoric Sep 2024
    Where’s the Rhetoric? Imagining a Unified Field ↗
    Joshua Hanan
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism composition theory genre theory discourse analysis cultural rhetorics argument qualitative research quantitative research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric affect and writing body and rhetoric editorial matter
  5. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Sep 2024
    Populist Rhetorics Case Studies and a Minimalist Definition ↗
    Arthur E. Walzer
    classical rhetoric modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument digital rhetoric social media disability studies public rhetoric editorial matter