Title

Looking at how effective empathy is as a research method.
-Investigating the importance of empathy in the co-design process throughout design, business and health care.

Summary

The area of research that is going to be investigated is the role of empathy and how, by using empathy designers/non-designers can find them selves adding value (whether that be personal or commercial) to their design process/final outcome. This can be achieved by working closely and alongside their user (co-designing) and this will ultimately produce more in depth and meaningful insights.
Within design education the level of empathy required for a target group is often not reached due to lack of understanding, resources and life experiences of students (who are generally aged 17-24 years). In order to open students eyes, one empathic research method used that allows students to understand their user(s) more is featured in Dev Patnaik’s book Wired to Care. The term is called ‘empathic modeling’-where you put yourself in the shoes of the person you are designing for. For design students they may loose some of their senses for a day to understand how a blind person uses a product for example. This form of research can have several exercises attached to it and requires group work and trust to be effective. Patnaik writes that students often feel so immersed in mirroring their user they began to feel emotionally and physically challenged and at level of immersion it is healthy for students to go back to being the designer, for example designer Pat Moore was so involved in her modeling role that she encountered the cruel reality of life outside when she was mugged whilst being disguised as an 80 year old elder.
The term ‘empathic horizon’- “the boundaries to a designer’s knowledge and understanding” (McDonagh. D., et al. 2009) it is about how everyone has some level of empathy for a person for instance imagining a teenager- everyone has their own perception but that is only your perception  reaches a point where you cannot fully understand a persons situation without fully emerging yourself in their world.This can be talked about in biological terms- our brains are filled with mirrored newtons- ‘[they have the] ability to pick up on tacit information about other people’ (Patnaik. D., 2009). In this sense designers require ambiguity when designing for empathy.
As student designer population trends are very significant regarding the way we design. Future demographics suggest that the majority of the world will be made up of an aging population- they will outdo the working population therefore designers will have to adapt and change their designs to cater for an elderly population. In this regard, empathic design will play a large role. For student product designers there will be a difference in there design process, to fully understand there user they will have co-design at the very start of there process and involve their user considerably. This will also have to happen throughout industry, already companies are seeing the benefit from intensive user input in there design process, for example, New York design company Smart Design are the founders of OXO ‘Good Grips’ -products such as a potato peeler that have been designed through co-designing with chefs.Smart watched to see how they used the equipment and prototype then looked at the problem people with arthritis would have using a normal hand peeler. This use of empathy for there user helped them design a gripped handle which was more ergonomically friendly, not only for those with arthritis but because they were well designed they have became a very successful inclusive product.
There are several ways for students/those in health care and business to carry out empathic research for example: informal conversations, shadowing, role-playing, focus groups, ethnographic observations (McDonagh D, Thomas J.,2010) but to what extent are these forms of research affective? What are the positive and negative effects of carrying out empathic research?
When dealing with members of the public all sectors must have the communication skills to get to know and ultimately gain the trust of that person. Allowing designers to co-design with a particular group of society allows students to expand there empathic horizon line. By doing this the design process become a lot more thought out at each stage, it allows designers/associates to dip in and out of process at any stage and produce ‘more balanced functional products.’(McDonagh D, Thomas J.,2010) at the final design stage.
Empathic design has close links with a design concept called Inclusive design. Inclusive design ‘ensure[s] that their products and services address the needs of the widest possible audience’ (Design council). To do this designers will have to be adaptable in their design thinking and will have to bring in aspects of empathic design to do this. To be an inclusive designer, empathic design research will play a large part. As design students we are constantly being made aware of the need to rethink the way we make our products from material to how Eco friendly there are, using empathic research we can look at how product are currently being used by people, they may have adapted them to suit there need. Some product are not suited to the users specifications and this can cause ‘product abandonment’ for example when people feel that there is a stigma is attached to a product and refuse to use it even when needed like the walking stick (McDonagh D, Thomas J.,2010).Being empathic can tackle these problems.

Aims: Why are you doing this?
>To improve my knowledge of empathic research methods and design strategies.
>In a theoretical sense, empathy will help me gain a better understanding of users.
>I will experience user testing
>Using empathy in design will help me to produce/create products that are more accurate for what the consumer requires.
>Review my experiences in design education, evaluating my time co-designing.
>I will broaden my knowledge in areas such as business and health care
>I will improve my people skills through interviewing.

Objectives: What will you produce?

Review case studies of empathic practice within design, health care and business.
Experience empathic design through ‘Empathic Modeling.’
Analyse findings from user testing
Interview designers/ those in health care/ businesses
Use Empathic Design to achieve more valuable, and tangible outcomes in my studio practice.
Looking closely at the differences the role of empathy in each profession.
Investigate the co-design process, looking into the positives and negatives.

Keywords

Empathy, design, co-design, emotions, research, students, emerson, inclusion, engagement.

Expanded Bibliography

DHTP Dissertation Proposal References