Abstract
Design is about making our world a better place. Design education is a key factor in improving
the quality of life and we have to teach our future designers to be better listeners, observers,
storytellers and creators. A toolbox to help aspiring designers to seek insight through the
aesthetic experience of others is essential to develop their empathic abilities and to learn how to
think outside the box. However, it is surprising to realize that only a few design schools offer
courses, let alone approaches, to engage in such methodology. This kind of toolbox was created
in a pedagogical integration project conducted at the University of Montreal School of Industrial
Design and was the result of five years of workshop teaching. Thus, this paper proposes a
critical reflection on pedagogical challenges met in teaching empathic design practices. The
observations collected in the workshops allowed three types of findings: the a prioris, the
learning experience, and the limits of the creative integration of data. As a way to integrate
research based-tools to support and defend design strategies, the approach presented in this
paper allows the use of more refined methods to teach empathic design.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).