Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:01:00.463Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Empathic empowerment: an exploration and analysis of a situated interaction through empathic modelling and role-play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Amy Grech*
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Andrew Wodehouse
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
Ross Brisco
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Empowerment is crucial for eliciting designer empathy. This research explores a distinctive integration of empathic modelling and role-play, termed Empathic Empowerment. Through a qualitative study, this research introduces a novel evaluation system, entitled the Empathic Empowerment Scale, designed to support the optimal level of designer empathy in a situated interaction drawn from habitual user experiences. The goal of this research is to empower designers to create the next generation of human-oriented solutions with enhanced inclusivity and social value, through practical experiences.

Type
Industrial Design
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2024.

References

Altay, B. and Demirkan, H. (2014) ‘Inclusive design: developing students’ knowledge and attitude through empathic modelling, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 18(2), 196217, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2013.764933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alzayed, M.A., Miller, S.R. and McComb, C. (2020) ‘Does Empathy Beget Creativity? Investigating the Role of Trait Empathy in Idea Generation and Selection’, in Gero, J. S., ed., Ninth International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC’20), Atlanta, United States of America, 12-16 December, Cham: Springer, 437454, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90625-2_26.Google Scholar
Apfelbaum, M., Sharp, K. and Dong, A. (2021) ‘Exploring empathy in student design teams’, in International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Online, August 1720, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, V004T04A002, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/DETC2021-67912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battarbee, K., Suri, J.F. and Howard, S.G. (2015) ‘Empathy on the edge: Scaling and sustaining a human-centered approach to innovation’, Harvard Business Review, 114, available.Google Scholar
Bell, P., Davis, E.A. and Linn, M.C. (1995) ‘The knowledge integration environment: Theory and design’, in The first international conference on Computer support for collaborative learning, Bloomington, United States of America, October 1720, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1421, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.3115/222020.222043.Google Scholar
Bennett, C.L. and Rosner, D.K. (2019) ‘The Promise of Empathy: Design, Disability, and Knowing the “Other”’, in ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Glasgow, Scotland, 4–9 May, 113, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300528.Google Scholar
Bruner, I. (1990) ‘Acts of Meaning’, Psychological Medicine, 22(2), 531531, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700030555.Google Scholar
Cummings, J.J., Tsay-Vogel, M., Cahill, T.J. and Zhang, L. (2022) ‘Effects of immersive storytelling on affective, cognitive, and associative empathy: The mediating role of presence’, new media & society, 24(9), 20032026, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444820986.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickey, M.D. (2005) ‘Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games can inform instructional design’, Educational technology research and development, 53(2), 6783, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02504866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duan, C. and Hill, C.E. (1996) ‘The current state of empathy research’, Journal of counseling psychology, 43(3), 261, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.43.3.261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feshbach, N.D. and Feshbach, S. (2009) ‘Empathy and Education’ in Decety, J. and Ickes, W., eds., The Social Neuroscience of Empathy, online ed., Cambridge: MIT Press, 8598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, J.A. (2017) ‘Empathic actualities: toward a taxonomy of empathy in virtual reality’, in Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, Funchal, Portugal, November 14–17, Springer, 233244, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71027-3_19.Google Scholar
Grech, A., Wodehouse, A. and Brisco, R. (2023) ‘Designer empathy in virtual reality: transforming the designer experience closer to the user’, in IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, Milan, Italy, October 09–13, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.380.Google Scholar
Gudur, R.R. (2023) ‘Teaching empathetic design through the pedagogy of discomfort’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2023), Barcelona, Spain, 7-8 September 2023, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2023.37.Google Scholar
Haraway, D. (1988) ‘Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective’, Feminist Studies, 3, 575599, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3178066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, J.L. and Fila, N.D. (2016) ‘The development and growth of empathy among engineering students’, in 2016 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, New Orleans, United States of America, 26-29 June, Washington DC: American Society for Engineering Education, available: https://doi.org/10.18260/p.26120.Google Scholar
Kampis, D. and Southgate, V. (2020) ‘Altercentric cognition: how others influence our cognitive processing’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24(11), 945959, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.09.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keysers, C. and Gazzola, V. (2007) ‘Integrating simulation and theory of mind: from self to social cognition’, Trends in cognitive sciences, 11(5), 194196, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.02.002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Louchart, S. and Aylett, R. (2003) ‘Solving the narrative paradox in VEs–lessons from RPGs’, in International workshop on Intelligent Virtual Agents, Berlin, Germany, September 15–17, Springer, 244248, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39396-2_41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moody, L., Mackie, E. and Davies, S. (2011) ‘Building Empathy with the User’ in Karwowski, Soares and Stanton, eds., Human factors and ergonomics in consumer product design: Uses and applications, Boca Raton: CRC Press, 177198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, P. (2012) ‘Quality of Life for All Ages, By Design. A Conversation with Patricia Moore’, Center for Policy Research, 286, available: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/286.Google Scholar
Nicolle, C. and Maguire, M. (2003) ‘Empathic modelling in teaching design for all’, in Proceedings of International conference on human-computer interaction; 2nd Conference on Universal Access in Human Computer Interaction (UAHCI), Crete, Greece, 22-27 June.Google Scholar
Patnaik, D. (2009) Wired to care: How companies prosper when they create widespread empathy, New Jersey: FT Press.Google Scholar
Raviselvam, S., Hwang, D., Camburn, B., Sng, K., Hölttä-Otto, K. and Wood, K.L. (2022) ‘Extreme-user conditions to enhance design creativity and empathy-application using visual impairment’, International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 10(2), 75100, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21650349.2021.2024093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shah, S.G.S. and Robinson, I. (2007) ‘Benefits of and barriers to involving users in medical device technology development and evaluation’, International journal of technology assessment in health care, 23(1), 131137, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0266462307051677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strickfaden, M. and Devlieger, P. (2011) ‘Empathy through accumulating techné: Designing an accessible metro’, The Design Journal, 14(2), 207229, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175630611X12984592780041.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, L.A. (2007) Human-machine reconfigurations: Plans and situated actions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Surma-Aho, A. and Hölttä-Otto, K. (2022) ‘Conceptualization and operationalization of empathy in design research’, Design Studies, 78, 101075, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2021.101075.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underwood, G.S. and Powell, J. (2023) ‘Bridging the Empathy Gap: Improving Design Empathy Across Cultural Barriers’, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2023), Barcelona, Spain, 7–8 September 2023, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2023.46.Google Scholar
Yao, T., Yoo, S. and Parker, C. (2021) ‘Evaluating Virtual Reality as a Tool for Empathic Modelling of Vision Impairment’, in OzCHI'21: Proceedings of the 33rd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Melbourne, Australia, November 30-December 2, 190197, available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3520495.3520519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar