Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond Audience Analysis: Conceptualizing Empathy For Technical Communication, Bernadette L. Cash

Technical Communication Capstone Course

The concept of empathy involves understanding others’ perspectives. Technical communication requires knowing the context of users; however, empathy is neither a prominent term nor a common subject in the accompanying literature.

This article will establish a foundation for empathy to be conceptualized for technical communication. Several definitions of empathy will be reviewed, followed by applicable resemblances from examples pertaining to audience analysis. A wide‑ranging analysis will connect features of empathy to topics from the areas of user experience, human‑information interaction, user value, business, and design thinking.

This article concludes that there is significant value in giving empathetic attention to the …