What if designers could step into the lives of others, not just imagine them? Designers have
often applied empathy to gain a deep understanding of other people’s needs, thereby premising
empathy in human-centred design. Within psychology, empathy extends beyond
understanding others’ perspectives, as represented by its cognitive dimension, to also
encompass an affective dimension, which denotes emotional resonance with others. However,
this multi-dimensional nature of empathy creates challenges for designers in achieving it,
which frequently reflects humans’ nuanced interpretation of others’ circumstances. While
designers possess a natural disposition towards empathy, this is bounded by their personal
experience, which limits empathy towards others whose experiences diverge significantly
from their own, including more-than-human perspectives. Simulating others’ experiences from
a first-person perspective has been effective in bridging this relatability gap through a
corporeal commonality. Although existing design practices integrate simulation tools, such
methods often fail to capture the complexity of others’ emotional and mental states.
This research presents the Digital Empathic Design Voyage, a methodological framework that
structures the designers’ journey towards enhanced empathy through Virtual Reality (VR). The
framework was developed through empathy experienced during two VR interventions
designed to evoke empathy towards people living with vision impairment and towards nature.
The approach taken to create these interventions informed a second methodological
framework, Constructing Empathy in VR, outlining key considerations for constructing VR
experiences for empathy. This second framework is also grounded in a deepened
understanding of empathy’s causality activated during the two VR interventions. In addition,
this research introduces the Empathic Empowerment Scale, an evaluation system for
measuring and analysing empathy. By integrating VR’s technological capabilities with human
skills, this research offers novel opportunities for augmenting design practice and developing
empathy. Ultimately, it advances empathy-driven design approaches that value inclusivity and
nurture ecological and social impact through meaningful experiential engagement.
| Date of Award | 29 Jan 2026 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - University Of Strathclyde
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| Sponsors | University of Strathclyde |
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| Supervisor | Andrew Wodehouse (Supervisor) & Ross Brisco (Supervisor) |
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