Browsing by Subject "Empathic design"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Building empathy in interior architecture education: exploring empathic design and its reflections
(2023-03) Yeşiltepe, Melis
Integrating empathy to design education enhances students' universal design solutions since empathic design provides a feeling and understanding of a wide range of users' needs in the designed environment or products. This study investigates how using empathic design techniques as instructional design methods influence students’ improvement in the multiple dimensions of empathy, design process and end products, and perceptions of their learning experience. The empirical research is conducted with three groups and a control group who are asked to experience different empathic design techniques (direct contact between designers and users, indirect contact between designers and users, and role-playing) obtaining in the redesign of an existing kitchen and reflecting their learning and design outcomes on an online session in virtual meetings. Qualitative data collection methods consist of behavioral observations, the researcher's logbook, interviews, and design conversation protocols obtained by video recordings of the Zoom meetings. Quantitative data collection methods include using a questionnaire and survey as instruments and assessment of end products. Thematic analysis was conducted to study data from interviews and design. Results indicated that an empathic design process positively indicated students' perceptions of their learning experience and enhanced their self-awareness and design awareness. In addition, empathic design improved students' problem-solving skills, helped them attain universal design solutions easily, and shortened the design process time. The role-playing technique was the most efficient compared to other techniques for raising students' empathy and proposing universal design solutions.
Open Access
Embracing student experience in inclusive design education through learner-centred instruction
(Routledge, 2016-03) Altay, Burçak; Ballice, G.; Bengisu, E.; Korkmaz, S. A.; Paykoç E.
This paper explores the process and outcome of using learner-centred methods to develop students’ empathic design abilities during an educational workshop on inclusive design. In the first section of the paper, we suggest the significance of incorporating inclusive design within the education of design disciplines. Then, we introduce a workshop on inclusive design awareness that architecture and interior design students participated, which applied various learner-centred methods. We discuss the process that incorporated project-based learning, role-playing/simulation and students’ reflections and feedback on their experience. The workshop process, the student project experience and students’ reflections on their learning indicate how multiple methods of learning engage students and enhance their empathic understanding so they can embrace differences and adopt a user-centred design approach. Based on the findings, we provide suggestions for similar educational events that can be applied in other disciplinary contexts. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.
Open Access
Influence of simulated physical ageing on heuristic evaluation in airport environments
(2019-05) Yumuşak, İrem
This thesis suggests a new approach for the heuristic evaluation of an airport environment by using simulated physical ageing. A task-based heuristic evaluation method was conducted with the eight evaluators who were professionally working as architects and interior architects. A real airport environment was selected as the experiment building where the evaluators performed task scenarios in line with the real airport experiences of passengers. Four evaluators wore GERT suit and four evaluators did not wear GERT suit to analyze the influence of simulated physical ageing. According to the results, the findings indicated that GERT suit enabled a better inspection of usability of an airport environment, an increased level of physical performance difficulty and enhanced empathy towards elderly people.
Open Access
Reflection of empathic design process on interior architecture students’ universal design solutions
(Middle East Technical University, 2023-01-26) Yeşiltepe, Melis; Demirkan, Halime