Exploring the Role of Empathy in a Service-Learning Design Project

Abstract

The emergence of empathic design has inspired growing discourse on the role of empathy within design. While research on empathic design acknowledges the presence of empathy in design practice, little attention has been paid to its underlying mechanisms and how these mechanisms operate within the designer’s mind throughout the design process. In this study, we used the service-learning data set to develop an emergent empathic design model. We collected and analyzed any instances in which designers evidenced empathy for the end users. We kept empathy loosely defined due to the exploratory intent of this study and the recognition that empathy by designers for users may show itself only subtly in designers’ reflections on interactions with users. Through thematic analysis of over 100 critical instances during the 8 service-learning videos, we discovered 4 higher level themes with 12 underlying patterns of empathy in the design process. These themes included (a) developing understanding design behaviors oriented towards identifying and comprehending the perspectives of potential users, (b) identifying criteria and constraints employing an empathic understanding of the user to set design goals and parameters, (c) generating design concepts designers’ empathic understanding of the user inspires new design concepts, and (d) evaluating design concepts using empathy to determine the appropriateness of specific design concepts for the users. These themes, their underlying patterns, and 5 additional patterns associated with empathy but not considered empathic, were mapped to depict an empathic design model.