Andreea Sclearuc
BDes (Hons) Product Design
Empathy Playground
Better design starts with empathy.
The Empathy Playground system aims to identify and eliminate unconscious biases early in the design process, thus enhancing the quality and fairness of products. Central to Empathy Playground are its cards, each featuring an introspective question for the designers to ponder. Currently, two decks are available: General Cards- for general project specifications and Male&Female Cards focusing on sex-based bias in design. The board and prototype kit serve as supports for the cards, facilitating display and acting as a playground for concept ideation and iteration using felt shapes and scale figures.
Empathy Playground promotes empathy in design teams, advocating for industry-wide diversity and inclusivity.
The Empathy Playground Cards can be used as a standalone product, organised using a ring binder.
Empathy Playground empowers designers to collaborate and creates discussion around implicit biases.
The Empathy Playground Board consists of the following areas: the General Lens Pegboard, the Empathy Lens Pegboard, the Prototype Area and the Extension Rug.
The Prototype pieces are made out of felt and come in diverse geometric and organic shapes, backed with Velcro so they can attach easily to the board.
The Empathy Playground cards are dry erasable facilitating multiple reuses for different projects.
The seven scale figures represent individuals of diverse heights and body compositions. Their aim is to bring the users into the design process.
The Empathy Playground system can be used in the early design phases as well as when pitching ideas to the clients.