Concurrents – Environmental Psychology: Empathetic Design
Designers, even those applying research about the people who will use a space, can lose track of the experience that a “non-standard” person can have in the places they’re developing. Much research focuses on the experience of average users, but few of us are actually “typical.” We’re too tall or too short or too thin or too heavy or too something else to be “standard.” Average and usual are in fact scarce and unusual. Designers must consider the experience of the full range of people who will use the spaces they are developing. Recently, I was in a lovely green building packed with staircases ascending majestically from the lobby up into tenants’ offices. I think staircases are great ways to burn climbers’ fat reserves and cut the natural resources used to move elevators, but I have asthma. I can’t climb too many stairs. I followed poorly designed and located signage …
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