Koskinen, Battarbee and Mattelmäki (2003) has edited this great piece of work, which I spend much time reflecting on these days regarding my Thesis in Design Management, covering managerial disciplines of practicing design with an empathic approach…
They say:
“To make successful products, designers have to consider not only how the project functions, but also about the subjective factors associated with it. These subjective factors are called “user-experience”.
Whereas my agenda is to translate emotion into products – to give the tangible form to elusive experiences, I develop several design criteria, to prevent unseen challenges in the design process. Jane Fulton Suri (2003) describes this as ‘making sense’ – to design appropriate products and use our ability to learn about, and identify with the users experience. She follows by saying “Empathic design is about using our understanding to inform and inspire the creation of more useful and enjoyable things for people we may never meet.”
In my case the Thesis is built from a single case study research, of my MA project done at Kingston University London, MA Design; Health and Wellbeing.
Interested in reading more?
“Empathic Design – User Experiences in Product Design” Edited by Koskinen, I., Batterbee, K. and Makkelmäki, T. 2003 IT Press