The UNIX Man is a consulting group that was formed to enhance the application of Empathy to web site design and engineering. We believe that while the web has power to improve efficiency and reduce friction for business transactions, that power hasn't yet been applied to understanding the humanity of the people actually using the web.
While our methods are strongly rooted in sociology, mathematics, and computer science, the application of these tools to bringing actual, real empathetic understanding to web sites to better help the people they serve is absolutely new. In many ways it's analogous to the "spam" problem: there was a commerical interest in solving "spam", and so it's mostly been managed.
We believe the same philosophy applies to Empathy, and that sites really can be made more understanding of the people using them, both on the personal and on the business front.