Empathy is a core competency for designers. We talk about and practice putting ourselves in another person’s shoes. In truth, it is an illusive competency most of us will live a lifetime striving to contain. This is especially true when it comes to culture. It is nearly impossible to quantify, the number of societies, cultures and sub-cultures that exist in the world, let alone to step into the shoes of each and every person.

To really begin to dig (or swim) deeper, we can supplement our senses with research as well as good ol’fashioned human experience.