Love the connection between design and writing. This word Empathy showed up in our editorial style guide for how to and advice writing. I still think it is a signal of the highest quality versions of those forms.

It's one thing to give advice because it worked for you or because it makes logical sense to you. But it requires a lot more thought and experience to understand how your advice will land for the reader.

I picked this idea up from an editor of a series of computer manuals. I'd asked her who I should read to become a better writer and she pointed me at the cookbook author Mark Bittman.

When you read his writing, he'll pepper in little asides where you might be confused, for example taking the time to explain that the phrase "a pinch of salt" is intentionally vague to leave room for your own taste.

That's his experience coming through to know that many readers trip over that phrase and/or experience anxiety that they've gotten the size of the pinch wrong.