Huck, Jonny and Coulton, Paul and Gullick, David and Powell, Phillip and Roberts, Jennifer and Hudson-Smith, Andrew and De-Jode, Martin and Mavros, Panagiotis (2015) Supporting empathy through embodiment in the design of interactive systems. In: TEI '14 Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction :. ACM, New York, pp. 523-528. ISBN 9781450333054
Abstract
Whilst empathy is considered an essential component of what it means to be human, it is arguably absent as a design objective when creating modern communication systems. This paper presents an approach to designing for, as opposed to with, empathy using the example of two design interventions to create embodied rituals reflecting prayers and worries of individuals within a church community. The aim of these interventions is to facilitate conversation and support within the community, thus generating empathy between community members, and inciting prosocial behaviour through embodied cognition.